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Ch 10Before you start

Before you start Chapter 10

Before you start · Chapter 10 — Wiring and Checkpoint #1

Builds every harness — mains, 24 V, motion, sensors, lighting, toolhead umbilical — and ends at the gate that must pass before the machine is ever plugged in.

What you're building in this chapter. Four systems, in this order. The mains side — the C14 inlet with its integrated switch and fuse, a three-block WAGO bus for Live, Neutral and earth, the 24 V PSU, and the solid-state relay that lets firmware switch a mains bed heater — goes in first and is then proved with a meter before anything is plugged in. The 24 V side fans out from the PSU to the Leviathan mainboard, to its separate high-voltage stepper supply, and to the USB adapter PCB that feeds the toolhead. The signal side is everything the machine senses and lights with: six motor cables on their mapped driver sockets, the XY endstop pod on the gantry, the mechanical nozzle probe that sets Z=0, the bed thermistor, two COB light strips and their junction PCB, the bay and filter fans, and the Pi's screen, network and USB links. Finally the three drag chains — X, Y and Z — are mounted and filled, so every cable can follow the moving gantry for years without fatiguing. The chapter ends unplugged, open and metered, with LDO's Checkpoint #1 behind you.

Time: 5.0–7.0 h hands-on, first build (survey §5.1, §7.2).

Sessions: 14 × ~30 min (Pause segments below; every minute figure in this chapter is a first-build estimate derived from the Time range and the step count).

Prerequisites:

  • Ch 03 — Build plate. Plate bolted down; its heater and thermistor leads loose above the deck, none through it.
  • Ch 06 — Z axis. Gantry in, Z belts on. The gantry must move by hand over its full Z travel — that is what sets the chain slack.
  • Ch 07 — A/B belts. Probe wires already dressed along the X extrusion (manual p.143).
  • Ch 08 — Toolhead. Stealthburner + CW2 + Nitehawk-SB V2 assembled, all toolhead-side connectors seated, USB-adapter PCB stack built.
  • Ch 09 — Electronics bay. DIN rails, the B11 conduits (DC loop at 09.6, AC conduit at 09.36, every lid off; layout v3), Leviathan on its brackets, Raspberry Pi mounted on its standoffs with the HAT power adapter, nozzle-probe PCB assembled and mounted, bed WAGO mount fitted above the deck on the left bed extrusion, SSR on its DIN bracket, USB-adapter PCB on its DIN clip — and the inlet panel with its IEC module fitted and mounted on the rear extrusion (Steps 09.10–09.12), plus the mains WAGO block built and mounted (Step 09.13). Nothing in this chapter builds those; 10.4–10.7 only confirm and label them.
  • Print batches: B05 (Z joints + Z chain), B07 (electronics bay + lighting — the eight COB mounts and the 3×5 WAGO mount), which also carries power_inlet_IECGS_1mm on plate B07-P1 (moved out of B08 — index correction #11). One B08 part is needed early: mount.stl (plate B08-P3) plus the B02 [a]_faceplate, at Step 10.50 — the touchscreen module has to exist before its ribbon is latched, so Ch 11 Steps 11.5–11.6 are done from there. Both are pre-kit prints. Nothing else from B08 is needed before Ch 11.
  • Print batch B11: V2L_STRIP_FIN and the AC conduit lids, both in bin 10-lids-AC, at Step 10.80.

Tools

  • Multimeter — mandatory. Continuity/beeper, a 2 MΩ or 20 MΩ resistance range you can select by hand, and a DC volts range. The L↔N pass at 10.19 and 10.78 is a number on that range, not OL: the PSU input bridges L and N. No multimeter, no power-on.
  • 2.5 mm flat-blade screwdriver (supplied) — WAGO levers, plug-type terminals, drag-chain latches
  • PH2 Phillips — PSU terminal block and SSR terminals
  • Hex 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 4 mm
  • Flush cutters, small long-nose pliers, tweezers (endstop repin)
  • Soldering iron + brass M3 insert tip — all twenty inserts in one pass at step 10.35 (COB mounts ×16, Z chain guide ×2, Z chain retainer bracket ×2), so the iron is out once and never during an electrical segment
  • Label maker, or the cable tags supplied in the kit

Consumables: zip ties (of the 100 supplied, this chapter eats 30–40), VE0508 ferrules ×5 (spares), a VHB pad for the strip fin, IPA and a lint-free cloth for the extrusion slots before the covers go on.

Printed parts

Parts arrive in the bins named below (see the bin map in print/README.md#bins); check the bin label's list before you start.

Looks like STL Bin Qty Colour
power_inlet_IECGS_1mm.stl (Voron-2 STLs/Skirts/) 09-bay 1 Black — heat-set, fitted with its IEC module and mounted in Ch 09 (09.10–09.12); nothing to build here
cob_light_strip_mount_100mm.stl (LDOVoron2 STLs/COB Light Strip/) 10-lights 6 Black
cob_light_strip_mount_50mm.stl (LDOVoron2 STLs/COB Light Strip/) 10-lights 2 Black
wago_221-415_mount_3by5.stl (Voron-2 STLs/Electronics_Bay/) 09-bay 1 Black — fitted in Ch 09, populated here
z_chain_guide / z_chain_bottom_anchor (batch B05) 10-chains 1 / 1 Black
[a]_z_chain_retainer_bracket_x2 (batch B02, plate B02-P3) 10-chains 2 printed, 1 fitted, 1 spare (verify on bench) Blue
2x3 Splitter Spacer — 2 LDO-supplied printed — do not print
usb_adapter_mount_partial_cover.stl (Nitehawk-SB-V2 repo) 08-CW2 1 Black — fitted in Ch 08/09, used here
V2L_STRIP_FIN.stl (batch B11, plate B11-P3), step 10.80 10-lids-AC 1 Black
AC conduit lids, step 10.80: CMD_V2_6B_WIRE_BOX_COVER.stl, V3L_90DEG_R15_COVER.stl ×2, V3L_34mm_DUCT_COVER.stl, CMD_V2_6B_T_SHORT_COVER.stl, V3L_10mm_DUCT_COVER.stl ×2 (batch B11) 10-lids-AC 7 Black

Hardware (chapter totals)

Fastener / part Qty Note
3×2 XH splicer PCB 2 one for the 6020 fan pair, one as the LED junction
2×3 Splitter Spacer 2 LDO-supplied printed, one under each 3×2 splicer
60×60×20 fan 2 bay fan pair, first plugged in at 10.47, mounted in Ch 11
Keystone CAT6 insert 1 plugged at 10.51, snapped into its panel in Ch 11
C13 power cord 1 first plugged in at 10.23, then out of the room
Drag chain 10×10 R18 2 X chain and Y chain
Drag chain 10×15 R28 1 Z chain
M3×5×4 brass heat-set insert 20 16 for the COB mounts, 2 for the Z chain guide, 2 for the Z chain retainer bracket (p.204 carries the heat-set icon but no count — count the bosses on your part, verify on bench)
M3×6 FHCS 16 COB mount halves
M3×8 SHCS 21: 16 COB mounts + 4 splicer PCBs + 1 ESD frame end 16 COB mounts to extrusion, 2 per splicer PCB ×2, 1 for the ESD cable's frame end at 10.58 (verify on bench)
M3 hammerhead T-nut, 2020 20 pairs with the M3×8 SHCS above
M3×6 FHCS (chain ends, X and Y) 6: 3 X chain + 3 Y chain manual p.197, p.199: one into the T-nut at each fixed end, two into each 2-hole moving end (verify on bench)
M3 roll-in T-nut, 2020 3: 2 chain ends + 1 ESD frame end X and Y chain ends; the ESD cable's frame end at 10.58 (verify on bench)
M3×10 FHCS 4 Z chain top and bottom ends (p.202)
M3×12 SHCS 2 Z chain retainer bracket to the A drive (p.204)
M5×10 BHCS 3 Z chain guide (p.201), Z chain bottom anchor (p.203), frame PE lug
M5 roll-in T-nut, 2020 3 the same three
M5 locking washer 2 frame PE stack
Extrusion slot cover, 6 mm up to 9 closes the slots the LED leads run in
Zip ties 3×150 mm ~35 from the 100 supplied

Read first

  • Mains is the one step in this build that can kill you. Nothing gets plugged in until Checkpoint #1 passes with a meter. If your local regulations forbid you from wiring the mains side, stop at step 10.8 — the first mains run — and get Section 1 done by someone certified. src
  • Set the PSU's 115/230 V selector before anything else and check it again at Checkpoint #1. Getting it wrong destroys the PSU on the first switch-on. src
  • Keep every wire loose inside every drag chain. Taut wires fatigue and break — the single most-repeated LDO warning, and the umbilical is the cable it kills. src
  • Close nothing until Checkpoint #1 passes. No duct covers, no skirts, no bottom panel. Re-opening a closed bay costs an hour and tempts you to skip the meter (survey §5.2 W8).
  • Never plug or unplug a stepper, or the Micro-Fit umbilical connector, with power on. Back-EMF kills drivers; hot-plugging the umbilical can take out the Nitehawk or the Pi. src
  • Your Rev D+ toolboard is a Nitehawk-SB V2. The Klipper config and the USB serial-ID pattern both differ from the Rev D wiring guide — that is Ch 12's problem, but do not let anyone talk you into loading leviathan-printer-rev-d.cfg on this board (survey §4.1 ①②).

Sources for this chapter:

Video coverage (Steve Builds, pre-release LDO kit — differs from Rev D+): Part 4 @1:43:50 (+13m), Part 6 @0:24:08 (+2m), Part 6 @0:25:44 (+22m), Part 6 @1:04:10 (+27m), Part 7 @0:08:36 (+16m), Part 7 @1:29:40 (+12m), Part 8 @0:53:06 (+37m), Part 8 @1:25:00 (+10m), Part 8 @1:34:41 (+3m), Part 8 @1:37:22 (+7m), Part 8 @1:43:45 (+11m), Part 9 @0:04:57 (+15m), Part 9 @0:45:19 (+3m), Part 9 @0:47:56 (+8m), More Extras! @0:43:01 (+4m), More Extras! @1:59:20 (+23m), More Extras! @2:18:10 (+53m)

Manual pages this chapter replaces. The official manual's Wiring chapter describes a BTT Octopus machine with a 5 V PSU. Per LDO's build notes, skip p.182–183, 186–193, 196 and 205–209 entirely and follow the LDO wiring guide instead. Only p.181 (PSU voltage check), p.194–195 (cable-chain overview) and p.197–204 (chain mounting) survive, and they appear below as steps. src

helperHelper steps: 15 · 10.31, 10.34, 10.36, 10.40, 10.43, 10.45, 10.65, 10.70, 10.72, 10.74, 10.75, 10.76, 10.77, 10.78, 10.79

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