Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

Here is our electrical panel for the 2015 competition season. Current features of this panel include:
- 12 Talon SRX Motor Controllers
--- All Talons are mounted on the same side of the robot to allow for complete access without moving around the robot.
- Wireway with covers
--- Serves to hide wire clutter and keep debris/parts from falling into the wiring
--- The Talon CAN ID's and circuit numbers are laser engraved upon the Wireway covers next to the corresponding Talon, making troubleshooting much easier.
- Custom 3-D printed D-Link bracket
--- Not only does it hold the D-Link at a specified angle, but it also conceals and protects the gyro hidden beneath!

The notable features that will be finalized this week are:
- More wireway engraving
--- The left column of wireway will list which motor each Talon is controlling.
- Custom breakout boards for the Talons!
--- These mount directly onto the Talons (using the same screw holes as the connector's guard) to allow for easy, and modular, input from encoders and limit switches.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

Greetings,
what crimps are you using for the PDB connection? also what crimpers are you using?

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

What's that connection/crimp going into the PDB, and the CAN bus?

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

I normally don't like the look of wireway but the laser engraving make these look great. Awesome job, please post more pictures of the rest of the layout when you get a chance.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

Looks like you've miswired your RoboRio. Your negative wire is going to what should be for the PCM.

Other than that looks very clean.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

I can double check on the exact model of crimps/crimpers we use, but the crimp connectors we have are very similar to those found at http://www.amazon.com/Ga-Orange-Insu...Crimp+ferrules, except in yellow. We also have a number of different sizes in various colors that we use for the CAN bus wires to the RoboRIO and PDB, as well as for the smaller power wires that connect to the PDB and VRM.

Our crimpers look identical to those found at http://www.amazon.com/Crimpers-Ferru...errule+crimper, but I can double check that the make and model are the same when I return to the shop tomorrow evening.

One thing we found about our crimpers is that, to allow the 12 gauge ferrule to fit into the PDB we have to crimp them twice, flipping the ferrule 180* in the crimper before crimping again. On larger gauge ferrules such as these, it crimps the tube into a rectangular shape with two flanges protruding from opposing sides of the rectangle. These flanges that are left prevent the ferrule from slipping cleanly into the PDB. By flipping the ferrule 180* and crimping a second time, the flanges are folded over flat against the sides of the ferrule so that it fits into the PDB smoothly.

We prefer to use ferrules as it prevents the wires from fraying, especially during removal from and reinsertion into the PDB, and decreases the likelihood of stray wire stands separating from the stripped portion of the wire and falling into the rest of the electrical panel. It mainly serves to keep the wires that are inserted into the PDB in a neat bundle that's much easier to work with than wires that have merely been twisted before insertion.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

I noticed that too. Electrically it will work just fine, as all the "ground" return terminals are the same connection, but it's not quite done according to <R31>.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

I love it when I see a robot laid out like this. Nice Job!
I caution teams to pay close attention to the minimum bend radius on their Ethernet cables though. Sharp bends tend to degrade the communication/bandwidth and can force conductors to shed insulation and eventually short.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

Thanks for the info. We used these on my old team and found them very useful. I totally forgot what the name of product was. Thanks again!

I'm going to get my mentor to buy those. Crimps you used on the pdb they look so nice. Looks nice but I'm of the mindset to leave everything exposed but have it neat wireways. I guess it comes from my pc modding background. But seriously nice work I just wouldn't want to have to troubleshoot that.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

Will you be adding signal level wiring to the DIO, PWM and Analog Inputs? It looks like this wiring will be sharing the same wireway as your power wiring, possibly leading to noise issues.

Re: Team 1619's 2015 Electrical Panel
 

We have used similar (smaller actually) wireway in previous years since 2011. We have not yet had any issues with these wires sharing the same wireway space, even last year when there was only room for two 1" x 2" channels of wireway for all the wires. We will, of course, perform similar testing to ensure that this year's layout is no different.

I'm curious as to why you're adverse to troubleshooting a layout with covered wireways? Instead of needing to cut zip-ties to free a wire for replacement or having a wire possibly bundled within other wires, you merely have to remove a cover and all the wires are immediately accessible. We layer our wires inside the wireways so that wires on circuits more likely to experience trouble (motor controllers especially) are situated near the top to make replacement and visual inspection much faster than if they were situated at the bottom of the wireway channel. Wires for things such as the team light (which we have never experienced trouble with) and other miscellaneous lights (which are non-essential to robot functions) are placed near the bottom of the wireways since they are either the least likely or the least time-critical things in terms of replacement.

I do, however, understand that adding a cover to hide the wires adds an additional step when visually inspecting wiring for problems. As such we have taken care to choose wireway with a cover that is designed for easy removal and reattachment. Last year's wireway was a perfect example of why. It was clearly designed to be put on and not taken off frequently. Deep "teeth" on the tabs engaged with grooves in the cover and it was designed such that it could not be slid side to side once the teeth engaged. It often took multiple people (or one person armed with a screwdriver) between 5 and 10 minutes to remove the covers, and just shy of five minutes to replace them. This year's wireway has a much milder design in terms of the latch between the tabs and the cover. All five pieces of wireway cover can be removed, with a single free hand, in under a minute by one person and can be replaced just as easily. We also have plenty of room in the wireways this year (each piece is either 1.5" x 2.25" or 2" x 2.25"), as opposed to being cramped for space as in previous years, which has allowed for less clutter in each wireway and resulted in a troubleshooting experience that has thus far been more pleasant than any previous year for us.