Slim NEMA 17 Extruder Stepper Cable Protector for Direct Drive (Ender 3 V2 / Micro Swiss Direct Drive) by beezischillin

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Small history:
I had issues with the cable of the left-most pin on stepper motor extension cable breaking after installing the Micro Swiss Direct Drive and printing for a bit on my Ender 3 V2 due to the sudden movements. No matter the amount or position of the zip ties, I couldn't fix it in place enough for it to not break. Even soldering the defective wire just ended up being disastrous as the solder just broke.
Had to replace the entire cable extension with a longer cable run straight from the motherboard as I couldn't find any ready made extension cables in my country or 6 pin XH2.54 connectors of both kind to DIY one, which was kind of annoying.
This is not really a Micro Swiss issue, seems like it can happen with any direct drive where the cable moves a lot. A warning that the extension cable is this brittle would've been nice to an amateur such as myself as I stupidly didn't expect this.
I printed some of the stepper cable supports I found online but all had clearance issues between the printer frame and the stepper, blocking the X axis, so in the end I ended up designing this part that clips onto the end of the printer, around the connector on the stepper and allows you to ziptie the cable in place.
This is my first printer so I can't guarantee that it will be perfect for the motors on yours but from what I saw this should fit most NEMA17 steppers. If not the Fusion file is parametrized so feel free to customize the dimensions and tolerance for your own part / printer.
I included the Fusion 360 file, all dimensions are parametrized.
The PETG I used was flexible enough to allow the part to clip around the stepper and hold it comfortably.
Hope you like and find this useful and may it save your cable from being damaged in use as there's nothing worse and more frustrating than waking up and finding your printer just miming printing in the air.