I got a Jackpot and it’s powering on and functioning fine. However, i can’t for the life of me get the fan wires to work with the power terminals. I’ve stripped the fan wires to copper, and if I touch the pos and neg wires to their respective terminal screws, the fan works. The problem is physically getting the fan wires to punch down into the terminals.
It seems like the fan wire will slip out regardless of how I get it twisted, entangled, etc. Soldering it into place doesn’t work since the power wires are very thick gauge compared to the fan, and any excess solder means the wire won’t fit in the terminal.
I saw another post that said to wire the fans to the MOSFET ports but other posters mentioned that the MOSFET wasn’t designed to output continuous power like that. I can operate without the top cover for now but that’s not really a good long-term option.
How the heck does one “just wire the fan to main power” without using a narrow wire gauge to power in the first place?
I use a 24v fan and just wire it in with the power supply to the jackpot. That way if the jackpot is on the fan is on. So much simpler than using one of the ports to power it.
I also use 24v power supply, so if you are using a 12v then you will want a 12v fan.
it’s the “wire it in” that’s throwing me here. How exactly do I wire it? Like I mentioned, it’s not really physically feasible to cram the bare wires into the 12v terminals on the Jackpot. The wire keeps slipping out.
What I do is hang out 2 short wires from the jackpot and then use Wago connectors to power up the jackpot, fan and under beam LEDs all from the same 24v power supply. Works great.
That’s the way I’d do it. Use an external terminal block or wagos to make a power distribution section.
I’m surprised you can’t fit the wires into the input terminals. What size wire are you using to feed into the Jackpot? The connector is rated up to 4mm² which is ~5-10x overkill for what we should need.
I think it’s 10 AWG. Unfortunately I only have either that or 20something AWG, which as far as I know is too thin for power. If I CAN use 20something AWG I’m happy to use that instead.
what is the something? 20 to 24 should be plenty for just a short run inside the box. Probably even less but Ill leave that to @jono035 to answer for sure.
The problem is that the 10 AWG cable running from barrel jack to +/- on the Jackpot is so thick that the 22 AWG cable I’ve tried to run from +/- on the Jackpot can’t quite find purchase when I screw down the terminal.
If I had thinner gauge for the barrel jack, it might fit in or maybe I could solder them together to screw them into the terminal block on the board, but that’s where the question of whether I can get away with it. I’ll have to get some photos later.
Yeah, that’s what I figured. 10AWG is some hilarious overkill. It’s 6mm² which is oversized for those terminals, let alone the actual usage here. We use 10AWG for carrying 50-60A…
20AWG is 0.5mm² which is about perfect for the 2-4A range that your current draw will likely be in. A 5m loop (10m total length) is 350mR so 1V of drop at 3A which is about the limit of what I’d be comfortable with. That’s plenty enough length to run from under the table to the end of the Y axis then across the X axis etc. so that’s a bit conservative, anyway. I wouldn’t want to go smaller or much longer than that, but I’d personally have no issue wiring it with 20AWG.
I wouldn’t, I’d personally just twist them together or feed them into a double-entry wire ferrule or similar.
Not sure what you mean here? One option is to clip the barrel jack off the power supply and then use Wagos or similar terminals to connect to an intermediate length of wire. I personally try to avoid barrel jacks like the absolute plague. They are truly one of the worst, most awful forms of power connector ever made. They have zero retention, single point non-wiping contacts, they’re prone to losing contact under vibration/impact conditions, they can fail long term due to vibration induced fretting and oxidation etc.
I’m fine with sourcing something other than barrel jacks, but optimally I’d like something I can use to unplug the power by just pulling it if I need to. A Wago looks like I’d need to flip up levers to kill power. The trick is also getting it to fit into the case.
I replaced the 10 AWG with 22 AWG and soldered the fan leads to power, and got them into the terminals on the board. Heck yeah, it’s working and the wires have not caught fire!
Can you not unplug the AC side of the power supply outside of the box for the same effect? My power cable from the power supply runs off the side with the VAC hose and hits an extension cord there. If there are any issues and I need to cut power I just unplug right there. Usually the only need is to restart the board. But I couldn’t imagine trying to get right on the board box to unplug something to cut power. Maybe I am misunderstanding you.
If it’s to use it as an E-stop in case of catastrophe then personally I’d add a switch, e-stop button etc. or something like that. For my MPCNC I run it and the router from a multi-board that has switches for each outlet. That sits on top of the desk next to the machine with the cord cable-tied to the leg of the table so it doesn’t move. If something goes wrong I just turn it off at those switches, either just the controller, the router or both. The maybe 5 seconds that would take seem appropriate for the level of hazard that the machine presents.
If it’s for ease of disassembly/maintenance, I used wago style terminals a lot for test setups and have some equipment where I’m connecting it via the terminals, testing it for a few minutes and then disconnecting it. It’s not as convenient as a plug/socket but it’s still pretty good. In that case getting the genuine ones with the large flat levers helps as the cheaper thin-lever style kinda need you to hook a nail under them and can be a little irritating at times.