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-   -   Electrical Systems and ideas... (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39245)

mechanicalbrain 08-08-2005 22:13

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by sanddrag
You mean like this? I believe this one is incandescent (maybe halogen) lights though, so it will take some power to run.

I wanted something with more than 8 LEDs and i only found one site that supplies.

mechanicalbrain 08-08-2005 23:02

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain
[I'm looking for a metal grill. To be more detailed, metal with a large quantity of uniform minute holes. If anyone knows what i can use for this it would be a great help to getting this box complete.

Don't bother looking i found some on a europian modding site. If you ever want to add anything really distinctive to electrical work always go to a PC modding site. You will be seriously surprised with what you can find, especially on europian sites!

mechanicalbrain 10-08-2005 02:40

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
I'm only posting on this thread three times in a row because the edit button timed out. I need to find a connector. It looks like your average power connector but instead of having the wire come out one end and having the male or female connector on the other, the connector is on the side. Its like a L and its yellow but it looks like they make them in red and blue. I ask because they are on a robot made by team RUSH in a picture (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...&quiet=Verbose) i have and i really need to get them (their the ones conected to the power board). Also if someone from team RUSH sees this I'm curious what the grey box with the keypad was for. I know its the Auton kiosk but could you go into more detail?

sanddrag 10-08-2005 03:01

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
I think you are looking for a flag terminal. Is that what you mean? Also, all terminals are color coded according to wire size. :)

mechanicalbrain 10-08-2005 13:32

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Perfect! Thats exactly what i wanted. Now can anyone tell me what team RUSH's box (the gray one) is. I have a general idea about what it does but its not like anything ive seen.

Sparks333 16-08-2005 02:25

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Hello!
I always was one for getting the conversation off topic...
This is not about neatness, but it is about effeciency. I noticed lots of major connectors (say, between the Vics and spikes and the motors and solenoids) in several pictures, and that's all good and fine, but the big issue with connectors is they can come loose, they can get dirty, or they can simply be forgotten and left unhooked. I propose an LED system in each major connector bank, so if its not connected, it completes a circuit and the LED lights up brightly to let the whole world know the connector isn't doing its job. It would, of course, be very easy to depend on it too much, and get false readings from it, but if you had multiple places where the LED gets its signal, possibly though an AND gate, you could become very accurate in your quest for unhooked wires.

Just a thought, but I quite like the concept.

Sparks333

mechanicalbrain 16-08-2005 03:00

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparks333
Hello!
I always was one for getting the conversation off topic...
This is not about neatness, but it is about effeciency. I noticed lots of major connectors (say, between the Vics and spikes and the motors and solenoids) in several pictures, and that's all good and fine, but the big issue with connectors is they can come loose, they can get dirty, or they can simply be forgotten and left unhooked. I propose an LED system in each major connector bank, so if its not connected, it completes a circuit and the LED lights up brightly to let the whole world know the connector isn't doing its job. It would, of course, be very easy to depend on it too much, and get false readings from it, but if you had multiple places where the LED gets its signal, possibly though an AND gate, you could become very accurate in your quest for unhooked wires.

Just a thought, but I quite like the concept.

Sparks333

You know thats a brilliantly simple (the best kind) idea! :D cut of a small patch of insulation out and lay in a LED! I think I'm going to incorporate that into next years electrical system! It cuts out the need for a multimeter in terms of checking electrical flow. However i tried to think about how to light a LED when a connection isn't made and realised its allot easier to have it light when their is a connection! The one important thing to do is make sure the LED is properly re insulated with the wire so you don't have a live wire. :ahh: Thanks allot and this is what i created the thread for so you are actually bringing the thread back on topic! :rolleyes:

Al Skierkiewicz 16-08-2005 07:38

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Oz,
McMaster is a great location for most of what youare asking. Flag terminals and perforated metal are some of their regular parts line. You can get aluminum, steel, stainless or plastic, you decide. LED's are left up to the user, but there are kits available to make almost any kind of light bar you want. Buying LED from Digikey would allow you to make it different colors as well.
As to the LED connect ideas, you could arrange a series of LEDs and resistors on another board and using #22 wire run a sense lead from each power destination to the light panel. (some companies call this an "annuciator panel") Add a little logic and bicolor LEDs and you could have all greens for "GO" and red to show a fault. One step further, if the load is connected, is it drawing current? Is it drawing too much current?

Sparks333 16-08-2005 10:52

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
No problem there, mechanicalbrain. Have fun with it, and let me know where you take it.
And Al, that's a great continuation! Jeez, I'd better get designing.

Sparks333

mechanicalbrain 16-08-2005 16:45

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
Oz,
McMaster is a great location for most of what youare asking. Flag terminals and perforated metal are some of their regular parts line. You can get aluminum, steel, stainless or plastic, you decide.

WOW mcmaster charges twice as much for the same perforated metal i found at a PC site

santosh 16-08-2005 22:44

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Sometimes McMaster is more expensive, actually many times they are, but it is the one stop shop for anything you could ever need (even a gaurd booth).
Also, I believe that neatnss and orgaznization leads to efficiency when debugging.

pakrat 16-08-2005 22:52

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
this is a bit diff take on electronics, but maybe what needs to be done is that some generous team needs to make a sensible or amazing e box, and then make spares that they can give to teams that dont have the electrical background to make a good box. you'd just have to make something easily mountable...

mechanicalbrain 16-08-2005 23:01

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
This is a common misconception. It would cost at most $20 to make an entire box. Electronics as a whole is very cheap if you look around on the web. You honestly don't need a big budget to do fancy stuff.

Al Skierkiewicz 17-08-2005 07:03

Re: Electrical Systems and ideas...
 
Oz,
$20 is on the low side for most stuff. A nice box could run you $20. If you design a circuit board, proto costs could easily be $60 just for the boards. We thought about StangeSense (current sense for motors) but realized we couldn't make it cheap enough to be a product and it needed some expertises that teams wouldn't all have. But coupled with the Martian's torque tester we were able to get some great info about motors.


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