Team 4719 Bulldog's (Main) Electrical Board

[ranger719]

Pls rate?

Post your boards here too! My team and I want to see some other's too! :)


https://i.imgur.com/gSwI7lK.jpg

[Munchskull]

I would have just stripped the talon wires and plugged them into the PDP and made the board a little more compact. All in all looks solid though. Maybe square things up for looks and lighten it. In terms of using on your robot 10/10. In terms of looks 7/10, the wires are nice and neat, I would not hAve problems navigating the board as an outsider. The one thing I perfer about my electrical boards is using clear polycarbonate (1/8th") if it is mounted any where other than the belly pan. Let's you see lights form the otherside and makes your robot feel a. Little more open.

Just my two cents.

[ranger719]

Hi! Thanks for you suggestions.

We're going to be laying this board vertically, but with a slight slant. We will then layer a large piece of reinforced lexan to view everything (and show it off :) )

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Goldstar for a clean layout!
To add to the above, the robot rules only allow one primary regulator. You can place a second regulator downstream if you intend to use air at less than 60 psi.

R71 “Working” air pressure on the ROBOT must be no greater than 60 psi and must be provided through one primary adjustable,
relieving, pressure regulator.

As to the use of Power Locks between the PDP and controllers, I second the previous post. The connectors just add another point of failure, more resistance and cost. They are nice, but in the event that you need to replace a dead controller, they would only save a few seconds over wires inserted in the PDP.

[Alan Anderson]

Where's your main breaker?

[philso]

Nice work, Matt! The layout of the components looks well thought out.

Consider where your battery will be mounted when looking for a place to mount your breaker (keeping it accessible from outside your robot).

It may be best to separate the CAN wires connecting the Talon to the PCM from the power wires running to the VRM and PCM. When your compressor draws current, it can induce noise in the CAN wires that are running in parallel and nearby. Movinr the power wires to where the power wires for the RoboRio are should give enough separation to dramatically reduce the noise coupling.

I am guessing that you put the Anderson connectors on the power input wires of your Talons to make replacement easy and so they can easily be reused in subsequent years. It is not clear how you connected the CAN wires between the Talons. You may want to consider using the locking connectors from Hansen Hobbies. We just got ours in and they work quite well. They use different pins from the PWM connectors that Hansen sells but the same crimper will work for both. So far, it is probably the connector that will introduce the least disturbance, impedance wise, on the CAN Bus and is still easily accessible to FRC teams.

It looks like the power wires to your DLink are run around the back of the board. You may want to add some tape to keep the connector securely plugged into the DLink.

[ranger719]

Where's your main breaker?

Our main breaker is on another part of the robot, with one Anderson going to the battery to breaker, and the breaker going to another Anderson which connects with the board on the bottom.

[cgmv123]

Our main breaker is on another part of the robot, with one Anderson going to the battery to breaker, and the breaker going to another Anderson which connects with the board on the bottom.

R25 has been clarified to not allow for multiple Anderson Connectors on the main power circuit.

[ranger719]

R25 has been clarified to not allow for multiple Anderson Connectors on the main power circuit.

d-dang. The main board will be mounted at the very top, to let it rotate on it's hinges. Are there any other ways we can configure the powerpoles so that it is modular from our board?

Thanks!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Matt,
Max is correct here. See R25 and diagram in the rules.

[Alan Anderson]

d-dang. The main board will be mounted at the very top, to let it rotate on it's hinges.

Re-route your main power wiring to go to the hinged side, so you don't have to disconnect it from the main breaker in order to rotate the board. Either that, or mount the breaker to the board and ensure that it can easily be seen, reached, and switched when the robot is in its competition configuration.

[ranger719]

Re-route your main power wiring to go to the hinged side, so you don't have to disconnect it from the main breaker in order to rotate the board. Either that, or mount the breaker to the board and ensure that it can easily be seen, reached, and switched when the robot is in its competition configuration.

Ah. That makes sense. However, all of the cables that are already rotating on that hinge are signal cables, travelling through an O-channel, rectangular channel. That should pass inspection should it? If I should wire the 6 gauge wire through the same channel, will it also pass inspection? The channel is spanning vertically though the robot, and is about 3 feet long.

Thank you so much!