I want to extend the wiring on my Ortur laser engraver so as to A, move the mainboard and its connections (power and USB) outside of the enclosure I have built and B, extend the bed length in the future, my question is what size wire to use? I have no idea as to what the original is, but I am hoping that 24AWG will be ok? As I have some of that already, any ideas will be gratefully received.
To come up with the right answer, you need to know the current settings, the length of the wire, and the guage, which will tell you how much of a voltage drop you will have due to the wire itself. Then you have to decide if that much voltage drop is ok, or if you need to increase the size to reduce the voltage drop.
In reality, the symptom of using too small of a wire is that you might skip steps. With a laser, I don’t think that is very likely. I’m guessing the actual math/theory would suggest something more like 18AWG, but that is a pain to work with. So I would try 24AWG. Honestly, I would focus first on having something stranded, and easy to work with, then worry about the size. The stepper electronics are just going to be pretty forgiving on a laser like that.
On my Ortur, 2 wires each for power, with one for data. The first time I extended it, I actually used 18g, then split it as it went to the connector (with a 22g data wire.) This time I just used some 6 conductor wire. Shorter run this time, and it seems to work fine. It’s the stuff from the V1E store, so I think its 22g.