Cool PCB setup

A while ago, while I was waiting for the BitsFromBytes stuff, I had to do something. So I decided to tidy the things I already had made. This is the result of the PIC based electronics. All wires are now arranged pretty neatly and there’s a fan on top blowing along the X-, Y- and Z axis boards, and then the two extruder boards. Since the NEMA steppers had such a low resistance they would draw some amps, so I wanted to be prepared when they arrived!

Mentally rotate this picture back 90 clockwise. Linux shows it (up)right but the blog software apparently doesn’t handle EXIF data on the orientation…

I have all boards together since I didn’t want the TTL communication lines (TX and RX) to become very long and I prefer to have these things all in one place. Also, the boards on the X carriage (on top of the extruder) seemed to me extra weight (compared to just cables going there). I think I’ll use (helixoid) phone cords to wire the X and Y axes. This can stretch a lot and contains 6 leads (1 stepper and something else). I hope it can handle the current, but I’ll just see if it heats up with full load. Otherwise I’ll use loudspeaker wire, I think.