Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

Alright. We have some large heatshrink so we will use this (our goal was to use zero electric tape because last year everything was held in with electric tape and it fell apart completely) as for crimping we have no problem, the "help desk" or it guys at our school use our room sometimes for its tools but they also allow use to us their tools which includes all sorts of industrial grade crimpers. Thanks for the help.

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

I'm really not sure. It might vary from inspector to inspector or event to event, but I'd bet you could get away with covering the receiver during matches.

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

I'm not 100% sure but it appears your PWM connectors are plugged in backwards. If I recall correctly the black wire of each connector should be toward the outside of the RoboRIO.
Nice wire routing work though at times you may regret using all of those tie-wraps when changes need to be made.
You can help wire our team's robot anytime.

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

Im not sure if its the right way but whatever its an easy fix. Thanks

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

It looks nice for your first ever electrical panel! My only recommendation, and this is purely aesthetic, would be to look into the possibility of using zip-ties to secure the wires leading from the PDB to the Talons down to the board in a similar fashion to how your PWM cables are fashioned. It's a minor thing that could help clean up the appearance of the board just that little bit extra without making the panel unserviceable.

One minor thing that would make it easier to use at competitions is the orientation of your router. I'm not quite sure how much clearance you have between your main disconnect (power switch) and your open ethernet ports. Since you have to tether to your robot at competition when you're not on the field, I would double check that you have enough room to comfortably plug an ethernet cable into the currently unused ports. If not, you may want to see if you have enough length on your cables to flip the router around 180* to make tethering to the robot easier.

Overall though I think it's a very nice job! A lot of robots show up to competition with what my team has dubbed "spaghetti monster" wiring that kind of goes all over the place. This wiring is well organized into little "highways" of sorts such that all your wires are routed along one main loop between components, and it really make the wiring look a lot cleaner than it would otherwise!

Good luck at the competition!

Thanks I will zip tie the talon wires as much as possible. As for the router there's really no way to put it anywhere else but I tested it and everything can comfortably connect to it. Thanks again

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

I believe your main breaker needs to be accessible without having to remove or open any hinged cover. Its not clear if this is what you meant or not. You can put a hole in the Lexan cover that will allow a hand/finger to get in to push the main breaker button. (just make sure the hole is small enough to not a allow a tote or bin through it :-) )

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

A couple notes I see:

Radio: good location. Can't quite tell from photo whether the other Ethernet ports on the radio are accessible -- you should set it up so that you can tether your driver station to the radio, not to the roboRIO. It's cheaper/easier to replace the radio when someone trips over your tether.

Use electrical tape to fasten the barrel connector into the radio. They occasionally come out.

Most teams use Velcro to attach the radio to the board -- easier to remove the radio and take it to the programming station at competitions. We mount ours with the white side to the robot. Use a sharpie and write your team number and 2015 on the radio and your roboRIO. Do not cover up the label on the radio that indicates the model and version number -- needs to be visible for inspection purposes.

If you make a short cat5/6 cable, be sure you're using stranded and not solid wire (more reliable). Personally I'd buy one rather than making it.

You'll want your vertical board fairly rigid if you're going to have the navX installed in that location.

Be sure you have good tie down locations for the load side wiring on your speed controllers -- not a lot of room in the photo you're showing. You'll want to both make those wires into bundles and have them tied down within a couple inches of the controller -- the screw terminals tend to work themselves loose.

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

The NavX doesn't want to be in that orientation. It's programmed to assume it's mounted flat.

We aren't using it anyway haha we just didn't bother taking it off.

Thanks we were out of Velcro and did what we could the other side an be taken off pretty quickly tho because it's just tie wire that's heatshrinked. Thanks again Ill take all that into consideration.

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

The mushroom style tape that 3M provided in this year's KOP works well in holding down our router. Our's sits right on top of our electronics box and doesn't budge an inch despite some rather aggressive driving maneuvers experienced during testing.

Re: Brand New Electrical People Make this
 

Nice job!
I agree with...
I'd say y'all did pretty good from the looks of it! Just make sure that the main breaker is always easily accessible from the outside of the bot!

As to the screw type of connectors, the most often made mistake with these is not stripping enough insulation from the wire. These terminals want some copper to extend through the terminal and out the other side before tightening the clamp. If wire strands ride up the threads, they are not conducting current. Most electrical suppliers, (Home Depot included) will have terminals that do not use a screw against the wire for clamp. Those terminals are meant for large diameter strands and solid wire. The type that uses the screw to push on a metal clamp work better for fine stranded cables.

Yes that may have been the batter way but oh well we learned. We did do it the more secure way so atleast we know it's not going to fall out :).

Alright thanks for the advice.

Do you think making a lexan cover and cutting a hole in it for the breaker Is good.