pic: a control box

[CD47-Bot]

[cdm-description=photo]17505[/cdm-description]

[edomus]

What are the red boxes at the very bottom. Battery connectors?

[Ian W.]

What are the red boxes at the very bottom. Battery connectors?
Looks like it's motor connections. If that's what they are, it makes it much easier to pull the control panel out for repairs and improvements.

[jacob_dilles]

nice job orgnizing the wires

[Shu Song]

wow, this looks beautiful.

If only I could keep all our wires so organized. Only problem is, the mechanical team never gives us enough room to have nice and organized electronics board, so we alwasy end up trying to squeeze everything into every corner that can fit something.

[Nuson]

*cries sweet tears of joy

wow... (are you really using all of those relays and pwm's?)

[tkwetzel]

That is beautiful...the neatest, most organized control system I have seen on a FIRST robot. Now if I could only get our control team to make ours look that good...or at least half that good. I can only hope.

[Ian W.]

*cries sweet tears of joy

wow... (are you really using all of those relays and pwm's?)
You think that's a lot?

810 is using 5 Victor 884's and 6 Spikes. We were going to be using 7 Spikes, but we ran out of weight/time to add on some cool lighting :).

Of course, the fact that we have all those electronics doesn't mean the systems they drive all work yet... :-\

[Biff]

Nice wireing job, hope you didn't get to cut up using the wire mold, that stuff is sharp. BTW you might get challanged on those cooling fans as they are not part of the kit.

[MikeDubreuil]

My favorite part is the modularity of the whole thing. It looks like with just a couple connections you can remove the box.

On our bot we have:
7 - Victor 884s
5 - Spikes
1 - Servo

[Shu Song]

Nice wireing job, hope you didn't get to cut up using the wire mold, that stuff is sharp. BTW you might get challanged on those cooling fans as they are not part of the kit.


I certainly hope not, cuz we have a heat sink on the top of our compressor. With out it, there is no way to keep the compressor cool, and we have the compressor on for the entire match cuz we have soo many pneumatics running all the time.

[MikeDubreuil]

I certainly hope not, cuz we have a heat sink on the top of our compressor. With out it, there is no way to keep the compressor cool, and we have the compressor on for the entire match cuz we have soo many pneumatics running all the time.


A heat sink isn't an electrical device. They follow under the same category a sprocket or chain would.


EDIT: Hooked on phonics worked for me.

[Shu Song]

A heat sink isn't an electrical device. They follow under the same category a sprocket or chain would.


EDIT: Hooked on phonics worked for me.


Then how can the fans be chanllenged? Sure, they need electricty to run, but their not really electrical divices.

[Adam Y.]

Then how can the fans be chanllenged? Sure, they need electricty to run, but their not really electrical divices.
They may or may not challenge you but just in case bring the giant muffin fans First provided you. They should do the same thing.

[Joe Ross]

Then how can the fans be chanllenged? Sure, they need electricty to run, but their not really electrical divices.

FIRST doesn't agree with you.ID: 436 Section: 5.3.2 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/28/2004
Q: May we use additional off-the-shelf fans if their only purpose is to cool the robot?
A: If it comes with its own motor, you may not use it. You may only use additional fans that are powered by motors provided in the Kit.

[dlavery]

If the heat sink is a completely passive device (ie. it is a big lump of aluminum that is nailed to your compressor) then it is OK. However, if it is an active device with forced cooling (ie. it is a big lump of aluminum that is nailed to your compressor, and it has an electric fan that forces air over the surface of the lump to speed the removal of excess heat), then you may be in trouble. The fans are electrical devices, and are subject to all the restrictions of such devices under the parts use flowchart.

Under the definitions used by FIRST, a fan is an electronic component (ie. it is designed to conduct electricity). Since it did not come in the kit, you have to ask the question "is the part a motor, solenoid, pump, or other actuator?" the answer is "yes" (the fan does contain a motor). According to the flowchart, the fan may not be used.

-dave

[Joe Ross]

If the heat sink is a completely passive device (ie. it is a big lump of aluminum that is nailed to your compressor) then it is OK.

Just make sure you don't ruin the compressor by nailing this mythical heat sink to it ;)

[dlavery]

Just make sure you don't ruin the compressor by nailing this mythical heat sink to it ;)


Liquid Nails! :D

-dave

[Biff]

All I was pointing out was that ruling "ID: 436 Section: 5.3.2 Status" (I read all the questons and answers one night) If you can use the fans from the kit all is well, that it. They did enclude two big ones and some little ones, we are using two of the little ones to cool our drill motors. So if you get challanged on it just make sure you have the supplied fans at the ready. That is all. BTW there would be no issue of a heat sink on your compressor, cooled by a fan supplied in the kit. Good luck, and it's still a very professional job with the layout and wiring.

[velocipenguin]

I certainly hope not, cuz we have a heat sink on the top of our compressor. With out it, there is no way to keep the compressor cool, and we have the compressor on for the entire match cuz we have soo many pneumatics running all the time.

Make sure you have the new version of ifi_aliases.h included in your code. It sounds like you're among those who are having cooling issues with the compressor because IFI accidentally reversed the relay aliases in one of the earlier code revisions.

[Biff]

Make sure you have the new version of ifi_aliases.h included in your code. It sounds like you're among those who are having cooling issues with the compressor because IFI accidentally reversed the relay aliases in one of the earlier code revisions.
What he is refering to if the spike that drives the compressor is not green, the ifi_aliases.h file is the old one and the compressor is getting reverse voltage, you can also just wire it black to red, as I think all the relay outs were upside down, someone else may know that for sure, we didn't get our valve code started until after we were using the new file. If you are using the diode trick to use one spike to drive you double valves, things may get reversed. I may be all wrong about the new file, as far as the other relays go but it would pay to check first.

[SteveC116]

Is that Harry Potter in the background?

[Ryan M.]

What are the red boxes at the very bottom. Battery connectors?yeah, looks like quick disconnects to me. (although I never find them quick. :))

[rufu5]

Sorry i couldn't post back quicker I was at the Great Lakes Regional. My name is rufu5 and I am a Sophmore in HighSchool and the Electrical team leader for team 447. We used SP50 battery connectors (just like the ones for the battery, since they can handle 50amps) to quick-disconnect all of our motors, and then we used 25pin d-ring connectors for all of our 20awg and up stuff like gyro sensors, hall-effect sensors, ect. This box can be completly dissconected and isolated from the robot for very easy troubleshooting (which i had to do at Great Lakes with help from team 45 the TechnoKats THANK YOU!!), so that is very handy. I also put in neon and LED fans for cooling but the judges made us turn off our neon because the said "they overpowered the team color lights."
If you have any questions about the box just keep posting, i will try to be online more often lol.

[Roland]

Wow, that's a beautiful board. I like what you've done with the Anderson connectors for the motors. Our electrical guy does maddeningly beautiful wiring like this, too. While beautiful, it's a huge pain in the butt to modify: the identical wires make it very hard to see what goes where. Has your team encountered this problem?

[tkwetzel]

I also put in neon and LED fans for cooling but the judges made us turn off our neon because the said "they overpowered the team color lights."

You should get red and blue neon lights that you can easily switch between. They might then be allowed, and they would help everyone else out when trying to figure out what alliance each robot is on.

[rufu5]

You should get red and blue neon lights that you can easily switch between. They might then be allowed, and they would help everyone else out when trying to figure out what alliance each robot is on.

That is an awsome idea and I am going to try and follow up on that before Chicago.

Also, we labeled all of the wires (very tiresome process) so we could easily disconnect any pwm or motor cable for testing and then quickly reconnect them before the match lol.

[Ali Ahmed]

That is a very nice electronics board. We are doing some thing like but it is 4 boards connected togeher w/ Andersons.

[Biff]

Sorry i couldn't post back quicker I was at the Great Lakes Regional. My name is rufu5 and I am a Sophmore in HighSchool and the Electrical team leader for team 447. We used SP50 battery connectors (just like the ones for the battery, since they can handle 50amps) to quick-disconnect all of our motors, and then we used 25pin d-ring connectors for all of our 20awg and up stuff like gyro sensors, hall-effect sensors, ect. This box can be completly dissconected and isolated from the robot for very easy troubleshooting (which i had to do at Great Lakes with help from team 45 the TechnoKats THANK YOU!!), so that is very handy. I also put in neon and LED fans for cooling but the judges made us turn off our neon because the said "they overpowered the team color lights."
If you have any questions about the box just keep posting, i will try to be online more often lol.
Glad the Inspectors didn't give you any trouble other than the lighting about the fans. Someday I hope our team has space and weight for a control box as sharp as yours. :)

[rufu5]

That is a very nice electronics board. We are doing some thing like but it is 4 boards connected togeher w/ Andersons.
That sounds interesting, do you guys have a pic?

[Ali Ahmed]

Nope, sorry, no pics. Yet