Hi all, I am wondering if the power line to the router needs to be shielded. I ran some shielding around mine with automotive braid shielding and then wrapped the entire line with black tape to stay in place and narrow. The problem is that the power line is now quite stiff and it is stressing the drive chain's agility a bit affecting the x-axis If I have all other feeds, going to each motor and limit switches, shielded and earth grounded properly (one end on each), do I even need the router to be shielded? Just curious as I am thinking about ripping out the Frankenstein cord I made for the router and replace it with flexible stranded wire like 16/2 and solder the splice in place. The router is a Makita router that only draws 6.5 amps. I like the idea of hanging the router power feed overhead as noted in other posts. Is that another route to support not needing it shielded if everything else is shielded? I look forward to your help. Cheers, Frank
Router or a VFD Spindle. Plain routers doesn't generate nearly as much EMI as VFDs, most people don't bother shielding router power cable. Just spacing low voltage wiring away from it usually covers it. If its a VFD you do need shielding Suspending from the ceiling gets my vote too (not for EMI, just getting the heavy cable out of the way, also keeping the cable safely away from all the sharp spinning parts too)
I've hung the unshielded power lead for my (Chinese clone) Makita above the machine and to the front - low voltage stuff to the back of the machine. I've never had any emi issues. Alex.
So We have been running a LEAD 1010 for a good while. Recently our Dewalt router kept dying. We replaced the brushed 2 or 3 times and would get a short reprieve. Last week I replaced it with the recommended Makita. I followed the existing setup which had the router cable run thru the drag chain with the control wires. In testing the new setup I am experiencing "Z axis Plunge". I was cutting along fine with a nice 3/16 Freud bit when all of a sudden the z axis plunged thru the workpiece into the spoilboard and snapped right off. Two questions: I see that the Makita has a Ferrite Core on the power line. It seems moveable along the cable and thus was moved to the end to allow the remainder of the cable to fit into the drag chain. Could some kind of EMI cause this type of plunge? Would it matter where the Ferrite Core is placed? I don't understand what causes the dive? Is it some kind of corruption of the actual gcode string? Or it is a power fluctuation that tweaks the actual stepper motor ? I don't get why fluctuation leads to a dive? Thanks for your insights.
See docs:blackbox:faq-emi [OpenBuilds Documentation] and for the Makita specifically (no earth, more emi) see Wiring - how to handle router power Definitely put it in a Swing Arm, no high voltage cables in the cable chain. You are referring to an old video. See Swing Arm
I was told here it is a security device and not a Ferrite core. Yes it matters where you put a Ferrite core. Sure you might get lucky by just clamping one on the end of a cord. Without the proper equipment to be able to find which cord / wire the EMI is degrading the signal on and at what frequencies you're just basically wasting time and money playing the guessing game and hoping you get lucky. And in fact you can make the problem worse by clamping a bunch of them where ever on your wiring. Are you using Black Box?
Yes BlackBox . I guess we had the Dewalt set up wrong and just did not know it. Not sure about the device on the Makita power cord. It looks like the Ferrite core on the USB cables but I couldn't tell anything more than that. I will rerun the router power and see what I get. Thanks
On my Makita, the “ferrite” was just plastic with a security strip inside. A flat blade screwdriver pushed into the clips will open it up. I grounded the Makita to the C-Beam Machine chassis and to the ground pin of the power supply power cord (Not DC -). I have the Makita power cord going straight up from the router along with the vac hose to a bungee cord from the ceiling until I can make something more permanent.
Thanks for sharing, that is helpful! Now my curiosity is up and I am going to have to check out my "Ferrite Core". Will report back my findings!
even if it is a ferrite, do still add the Earthing wire - Ferrites suppress higher frequency noise, and Earthing helps for the 50/60hz AC frequency noise
