07-25-2009 12:48 PM

sgreco

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

I'm not too sure looking at this, but if the distibution board fits under the cims I'd put it on that shelf. I'd put the crio where the distribution board is and the side cars should still fit next to the crio. I don't have a specific reason for this, just my 2 cents.

07-25-2009 12:49 PM

Seat Ninja

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

I would say to mount the CRIO where the DS and gaming adapter are now. Than mount the DS and gaming adapter on a vertical panel mounted by your speed controllers on that foward-middle bar there. Also i would say you should mount the power switch (breaker) up on the upper frame so you don't have to reach inside to turn it off if it rampages accross your school/workshop. Last note, you may have problems wiring the battery side of your distribution board, but since you said this is a simple 6 wheel drive i assume you'll only use the front side.

That was every nitpicking detail I could find a problem with. You'd be fine only changing the CRIO and DS/gaming adapter.

07-25-2009 12:50 PM

Lowfategg

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

Move the radio out of the bottom half of the robot, its not a good idea to have it close to any other electronics, we had interference problems. Just use some Velcro and stick it up on the top of the robot somewhere.

You could probably move the digital side car to the middle of the motor controller board under the gearboxes to save on PWM cable mess. That would open up room for the Crio in back.

Only other thing I can see you doing is moving the battery forwards for better weight distribution.

07-25-2009 12:56 PM

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

Btw, obviously this is easier to plan out when you actually have an end effector on there. And I'm hoping that next season we can still use the Vics.

07-25-2009 04:03 PM

EricVanWyk

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

Until you can provide a sane reason for the GDC/FRCHQ to eliminate Victors OR proof that the GDC/FRCHQ is insane, I humbly request an end to this style of fear-mongering.

07-25-2009 07:03 PM

Andrew Schreiber

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

Sane Reason:

IFI decides to stop donating Vics. From a purely financial standpoint Jaguars are cheaper than Vics. If both companies stopped providing FIRST would more than likely provide the lower cost one which would make the other one unavailable to us.

Also, Dave Lavery is proof that the GDC is insane. ("I feel like I need to rinse out my brain with drain cleaner - dlavery" Ironically this was the spotlight quote while writing this)


Akash, You do not want your wireless bridge down there, get it up out of the electronics. Your main switch should also NOT be there, it needs to be accessible. Imagine having a wheel running full speed as you try to grope and find that switch. Not a fun experience. Get that up away from the wheels a little more. After that you need to move the side car up in between the motors. Place the vics controlling the motors next to the TBs. This keeps your PWM runs short. This also frees up the space to mount the CRIO in place of the wireless bridge and the sidecar.

As for placing other vics, I would actually suggest a vertical panel and mounting them on that. Too often we think in 2D when in reality we have a lot more space than we think. HOWEVER, do not put vics under the CIM motors, be careful with your air flow, putting hot air through the system could be worse than putting no air in (don't do either) Obviously the location of the panel depends on what they are driving. If they are driving an arm located towards the tail end of the robot placing a vertical board up from the second cross beam from the back may be optimal, it keeps them from sucking in the hot air around the CIMs and will let you keep the wires to the from the PD board short.

That being said, you also have the option of laying that battery DOWN, it will help push your CG lower that way. Not a huge issue last year but it should always be a consideration.

07-25-2009 07:47 PM

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

Thanks for all the suggestions Andrew. I'll keep those things in mind when laying out the board in CAD. As for where the main breaker is, we always keep a kill switch connected to our operator's box. (It honestly looks like a ridiculous explosives trigger)

07-25-2009 09:54 PM

DonRotolo

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

We had our cRio mounted almost halfway across the robot from the PDB/Battery, and the DSC was mounted by the Jag/Victor area.

Really, only the heavy power wires need to be kept as short as reasonable (to reduce losses) - the cRio and DSC wires can be as long as necessary, only issue is electrical interference, but that can be addressed with wire routing.

I agree, put the radio up high, or at least a wavelength (23 cm) from metal to the best extent possible.

07-26-2009 04:32 PM

Travis Hoffman

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

We actually mounted our cRIO vertically to a polycarb panel bolted to two of our vertical base frame members. Wiring and connecting/disconnecting the programming cable required a bit more time and care, but we saw no major problems with this solution.

07-26-2009 04:45 PM

Jared341

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

In 2009 we put all of our electronics onto either side of a piece of fiber board. The board was about (estimating based on memory here) 18"x10". On one side we fit the PD and 4 speed controllers. On the other side we put the cRIO, DSC, and another couple speed controllers.

The best part was the entire board could "slide" into a set of vertical rails on the interior of our chassis. To do maintenance, all we had to do was slide the board out of the bot (we made sure we had enough wiring slack to pull this off). It's a design that we will probably duplicate going forward.

By building vertically you'd be surprised how little real estate the electronics take up. The only items that weren't on the fiber board were the radio (mounted on our hopper with velcro) and the main breaker (over one of the drive wheels for easy access).

07-26-2009 04:51 PM

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

That sounds like a pretty sweet design Jared. Would you mind trying to post a few pictures of that set up? It sounds really interesting.

07-26-2009 05:19 PM

squirrel

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

We built a box, and mounted it vertically, it worked out really well, James likes it. On a game where robots have arms that stick out, it might not work so well....it could get poked into....

07-27-2009 08:33 AM

youngWilliam14

Re: pic: Electronics are a Squeeze

idk how many people might frown upon this, but this last year, since we only used the analog and digital cartriges, those we set to the first two slots in the cRio, and then we zip-tied the wireless bridge on top of the cRio over the empty slots XD