Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

We started off this year pretty clueless to all of the little nitty gritty details about electrical compenents. Heck, we spent a week trying to figure out why our limit switch wasn't working, to find out that we reimaged our cRIO wrong. Our electrical subteam has had a pretty terrible streak of documenting over the years, so we decided to consolidate our experiences into a giant electrical guide for everyone!

It's pretty long (spans ~130 pages) and we still have some sections and links to add, mostly concerning sensors. We hope this serves to be helpful =D

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...FQO4vjQI/edit#

Let us know if there are any egregious errors or improvements/other bases to cover.

(Also, I'm not sure if this thread belongs in here or chit chat...sorry if this is in the wrong forum!)

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Very nice! A whole lot of information in there!

If you don't mind, I may try to borrow some pieces for our Lazy Mentor chart, particularly for the programming.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

That is an awesome guide, I don't think I've ever seen one so complete. I will definitely be showing this to my team, thanks :)

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

I'm graduating, so I'll use this for some training before I leave.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

WOW! You really put some effort in creating a valuable product. I'll probably use it for training the electronics and programming sub-teams next fall with the caveat that some of the control system components will change.
Nice work. Give yourself a pat on the back.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Thanks everyone!

Everything on this manual is free for everyone to use. Let us know if you would like the PDF/other formats. We're currently working on a printable version.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Fantastic and comprehensive guide. I sincerely hope that your team considers updating it for the 2015 control system.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Wow!! Fantastic job. Thanks for sharing, this will be a great teaching tool for next years team!! See you guys tomorrow, and, best of luck to you!!

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

My thoughts exactly. Too bad that a lot of this material will be obsolete in 2015, but what a start for the rookies this September. How can we make sure they all know enough to look for it? We have a CT FIRST University day coming up so I'll be sure to mention this compendium. Thanks.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

I want to congratulate you on taking the initiative of creating such a guide - this is something I am currently working with team leadership on my team to create (similar, but more specifically electronics-oriented).

However, I just gave the whole thing a quick-browse and I've found a couple areas that need work (mostly electrical). Here are a few I found quickly:

1. Wago Connector (Under Power Connector) - The Wago is not used to jump power from the PDB to the cRIO power connector. The cRIO power connector on the PDB has a 4-pole connector on the PDB and plugs to the 4-pole or 2-pole power connector on the cRIO. The 4-pole power connector on the PDB allows you to use the 24V connector on the PDB for both the cRIO as well as 24V pneumatics. What I'm sure you MEANT to say was that the Wago connector is used to provide power from the 12V branches on the PDB to the Digital Sidecar power connector.
2. Motor Controllers - the Jaguar, Talon, and Victor breaker definitions are incorrect. The Jaguar, Talon, and Victors can all use 20A breakers if you wanted - you must provide the correct breaker to protect the wires used AND provide enough power for the current draw of the device being used (whichever is less). For instance, if you use 16AWG wires, you need to use 20A breakers - but you can use a Talon to power a CIM with ease; however, that won't provide enough current to the current-hungry CIM motor. So you would require at least 12AWG wire to route power to the Talon, so that then you can use a 40A breaker for the CIM.
3. Victor - The victor does NOT provide square-root power to a device. If you have a 12V input, you can provide a 12V output. Not really sure where you got that gem from. :)
4. Victors, Talons, and Jaguars are all interchangeable. Except for the fact that in my Humble but Accurate Opinion Jaguars should never be used for drivetrains. The reason lies behind the "software-controlled progressive current limitations" built into the firmware. But, functionally and power-wise, they are interchangeable.
5. Spike - it should be noted that a spike can also use a 20A snap-action breaker and is not limited to a 20A fuse.
6. When wiring your Camera, be careful - the metal post sticking out of the camera is likely connected to the common (ground) wire of the power input. Make sure the camera mount is insulated from the robot frame.
7. In the same regard, be careful with the cRIO. The cRIO's case is also connected to the common (ground) wire of the power input. Make sure the cRIO is insulated from your frame (usually I just mount the cRIO with velcro).

Otherwise, great job with the documentation.

-Danny

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Also note that this is only legal when powering a compressor.

This is only true on the old Axis 206 camera. The M1011 and M1013 do not have this problem.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Here's a few things I noticed:

Analog Breakout: The red analog breakout has the switching regulator. Both blue versions have 0.25 amp linear regulators. The 2014 analog breakout does not have the battery voltage jumper. AI 8 is automatically jumpered.

Servo: Should mention 6v jumper on digital sidecar

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

We're currently in the middle of our Hawaii regional, but we'll definitely be updating this after we're over the insanity of competition :ahh:

Thanks for all of your input! :D

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

This is a really great guide to all of the electrical parts, I now plan to use this is as a guide for the Powerpoint to show rookies at the beginning of the school year in the future! :D

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

This is AWESOME!!!!!!

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Can you point me to the rule that says this? I thought this was the case, but one of our mentors disagreed with me and asked to see the rule. I looked, and much to my surprise could not find anything. Or is this an exception to the "anything not explicitly forbidden is allowed" rule?

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

R64 makes it illegal to modify the spike (which presumably includes changing the fuse for a circuit breaker) and then R64-E specifically allows the use of a circuit breaker when running the compressor.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

WOW!! This is incredible and clearly had an impressive amount of work put into it. I will definitely look at this again and learn from it more. I never knew cRIO stood for something!! :) This guide really explains why specifically the stuff we wire works (and how it works!!), which is important. Thanks so much!!

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Interesting, I was inspecting robots all weekend and that was never brought up. I wonder what the logic behind limiting a breaker to only the compressor is.

The document should be updated to emphasize that snap breakers are recommended (but not required) for the compressor, as the current draw on the compressor could be enough to pop the fuse when it starts.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Well, we have now been through three regionals(one last year and two this year) with breakers instead of fuses on spikes controlling window motors.

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

Wow! Fantastic resource! I'm really interested in electrical so this should help a ton! Thanks so much. Great work. :)

Re: Team 2853 presents...their Book of Electrical
 

As Joe pointed out R64 allows the modification for a 20 amp circuit breaker for the use with compressor only. This is an exception rule so it won't be found with a standard search.
R64
The Driver Station software, cRIO, Power Distribution Board, Digital Sidecars, Analog Breakouts, Solenoid Breakouts,RSL, 120A breaker, motor controllers, relay modules, Wireless Bridge, 12VDC-5VDC converter, and batteries shall not be tampered with, modified, or adjusted in any way(tampering includes drilling, cutting, machining, gluing, rewiring,disassembling, etc.), with the following exceptions:
E. If powering the compressor, the fuse on a Spike H-Bridge Relay may be replaced with a 20A Snap-Action circuit breaker.

This is following a recommendation by VEX (dating back to 2002 or earlier) that for a KOP compressor only, the start current was high enough to blow the fuse but not damage the relay contacts. All other motors that have a stall current in excess of 20 amps will damage the contacts and internals of the Spike and obviously void the warranty. Breakers may not be used in place of the fuse on other FRC motors to prevent catastrophic failures.

I think it is also appropriate to point to the following highlighted rule. I receive at least one or more queries on this subject a week during build.

R35
The one ROBOT battery, Anderson Power Products (or APP) Connectors (p/n SB50), the one main 120-amp (120A)circuit breaker (Cooper Bussman P/N: CB185-120), and the one Power Distribution (PD) Board shall be connected as shown in Figure 4-11.