Re: paper: Electrical Documentation
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[The electrical division does] not get to work on the robot until late in the build season (week 5-ish).
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Perhaps your team is so large you can let a big chunk of the team sit idle for the first half of the build season, but this is a big problem with simple solutions. In order to keep everyone usefully working, we divide our "ETs" among the various build teams to provide real-time wiring support through the prototype phase. Many of them come to understand the mechanical systems through this process, in addition to their electronic specialty. We also try to bound (as far as will affect wiring & high-level programming) the drive chassis around the end of week 2, and the manipulators by the end of week 3, so that the control board(s) is/are built and ready to install by the time the last manipulator is done. In part because our controls work is done so early, both of our scout team leads to date (2015 and 2016) have come from our controls sub-teams.
This paradigm doesn't just keep the electrical team from being bored, it has regularly made them the most likely members of the pit crew, and helped several to team-level leadership.
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All the wires are at 90° angles
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Sorry, but this just isn't appropriate to robots. Having worked with several former IBEW members, I do get the value of right angles when setting up solid core wiring in buildings. It's neat, easy to follow, and generally supports future maintenance. When wiring robots (or automobiles) with stranded wires, not quite so much. Focus on neat and easy to follow.
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there are no loose connections
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+1000! We have adapted an IBEW acronym: LCKR (pronounced Locker): Loose Connections Kill Robots. One of the things we do pre-season is determine who can reliably make a crimp joint, and who can do a reliable solder joint. During build season, every crimp and/or solder joint is passed to someone on those two short lists. Then a mentor tug tests!
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Please don’t argue with them. They will win. Arguing just makes the entire situation more annoying. Don’t be that person.
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While we do require that the "argument" be respectful in nature, shutting this down pre-emptively is IMO a mistake. How do you expect people to improve or for people to learn if you don't leave the window open to ask "WHY" should we do things this way? On our team, we want everyone to know why they are doing things that way. And if they can argue that there's a better way, BRING IT ON! (During competition is a different situation, of course!)
Page 4: This makes it look like everything in FRC uses 12 AWG wiring. I don't know where to start.... I'm going to give this up as a bad job right here. |
