How long.........

[JBaymore]

.....can the wire leads be between a Phidget servo controller card and the actual servo motor itself? What is the minimum guage? Does this wire need to be shielded in any way?

How long can the wires between a LED64 and the actual LEDs be? What guage is the mimimum?

Are any of the cards prone to issues of "coupling" and spurrious signals caused by running wiring parallel to 110VAC?

Appreciate the help here.... doing planning for the pit.

best,

...............john

[Chris97b]

Well, I don't have any experience with the servo card, but I can offer my opinion (although I wouldn't take it as set in stone. See what some of the experts have to say )

Servo wires:

If you are running JUST the control (white) wire from the card to the servo, I wouldn't think distance would be an issue. I would say it would definitely work up to maybe 50', possibly even farther than that. Minimum gauge on the control wire would be pretty darn small, since there is very little power going through it. Same goes for the power wires IF you aren't running the ultra-power A/T servo (HT815BB I think it was)

LEDs:

Again, the power is negligable (2.3v in most cases) so I wouldn't worry about it. In my setup, I'm using a 0/16/16 to control LEDs, I am using 24 gauge wire, with 5v going through them (have a resistor in series just before the LED to drop the voltage to the 2v area) Again, the distance is a non-issue unless you are talking about a LONG way (over 50' ish)

As for running 120v lines, you would do well to keep them as far away as possible from the other wires (*especially the servo control wire) I have seen 120v lines interfere with *shielded* Cat6 network cable, and I can only imagine what it would do to 24 gauge wire with a 2v signal.

What exactly is your setup? If you could provide a brief rundown of what you are looking at, it would be easier to think about (and most importantly, what do you need 120v for, and where would the 120v components be, in relation to other parts)


Just my $.02

-Chris

[JBaymore]

Chris,

Thanks for the reply.

The 100VAC is the main power buss coming into the enclosed cockpit structure. It is broken into three "busses" (separate switched circuits) that are connected to the surge protected power strips that feed power to stuff like the cockpit computers, the cockpit monitors, the 12V DC, 9VDC, 5VDC, and 3VDC power supplies, the powered usb hubs, and so on.

The main 12G grounded romex feed comes into the pit at ground level and runs vertically up one pit wall (concealed) to run overhead at the room roof level to the top rear of the overhead panel area. The AC power distribution runs into the pit into a corner of the overhead area, with the AC rocker switches (and indicators) that control it on the overhead near the fuse / breaker panel.

I will try to keep the wires as separated as they can be. In the few cases they have to "cross" in some manner, I'll try to keep them at right angles to limit inductive coupling. But I just was wondering HOW sensitive the Phidgets circuits are.

And yes, the AC is kept well away from accidentally getting "on" any of the other wiring...... and there is a pair of real fire alarms in the pit too (wired to the fire protect panel on the overhead).

best,

................john