I have a power strip that runs my MPCNC Primo board, router, and shopvac. I’d like to wire the emergency stop button from the V1 shop so that it can kill the entire power strip, and I’m really new at electronics, so I was hoping for a sanity check.
Could I run wires to the male prongs of the power strip to the NC terminals on the emergency stop like the diagram below? I’m not sure if opening the circuit would kill the power to the strip, but the idea is that if I hit the button, it kills power to the entire strip.
As you’ve drawn it, the switch would short out the circuit and trip the circuit breaker. If you connect it to the NO terminals of the switch, it would function as an emergency stop, by tripping your breaker when you hit the switch. BUT, while that would work, it’s really not a good practice to deliberately trip breakers.
If you want an easy to wire emergency shut off that works in a “normal” manner, i.e. doesn’t trip the breaker, you could get a sump pump piggy back switch cord and wire it to the NC terminals of the stop switch and plug your power strip into that cord.
Just because I’m cheap, could this do the same thing without having to wire in the switch? I’d just run an extension cord to get this up to a level where I can hit the on/off rocker in a rush. Robot or human?
Alternatively, could I strip the cable from the outlet in the power strip, splice the wires into the NO terminals, insulate the spliced wires, and go from there? My amateur reading of that is that it’d open the circuit just on the power strip rather than trip the entire breaker, which is definitely not what I want to do.
You want the switch to interrupt power flow on the Hot line of the circuit when it opens.
I’d put the Normally Closed side of the switch inline with the black HOT line. Then, when the E-Stop button is pushed that contact will open and break the circuit.
Those are the terminals I’d try first. I’d use a continuity tester or multimeter to check it before wiring up the AC current. You should have continuity when the button is up, and not once the button has been pressed (and locks down).
I do something very similar in my setup. I use one of these emergency shutoffs to switch off an AC hot. The switch itself is mounted in a metal electrical box, connected via conduit to another box housing the outlets on my table. It’s a VERY useful feature for a CNC/CAM beginner let me tell you.
kill you 
