Re: Removable Electronics
 

The 2007 box weighed about 10 lb.s, which isn't terribly bad compared to many other control board set-ups I have seen. Due to the fact that you have to see the lights on the victors, spikes, and RC, we needed a clear substance to make the control box out of, which is why we chose polycarb.

Re: Removable Electronics
 

thats pretty cool....i'll have to remember that for next year.

*edit*
just curious (this should probably be in programming, but, meh) how do you get power to the large fan? does it just hook up to a PWM output on the RC? or do you have to splice it and hook it up to the battery?

Re: Removable Electronics
 

For a lightweight alternative to heavy polycarbonate, you can always take thin lexan (1/16 - 1/8" depending on #lbs you want to support) and bend it in a pressbrake, no heating necessary if you go slow, just make sure you leave the backing on the lexan till your done bending so it remains optically pure.

If you place your bends right, we were able to mount 2nd level of our control system (4 victors, 4 solenoids, robot controller, three air tanks, allen bradly blinker assembly, 4 spikes) on a single piece of 1/16" lexan. Don't know if the brand matters but we used Markolon.

Any questions, just give me a holler.

-q

Re: Removable Electronics
 

Just connect it to a 20 amp breaker. I don't think a spike is necessary. And besides, the fans on the victors are wired in this way.

Re: Removable Electronics
 

sorry...i worded my qustion wrong....i didnt mean the vidcot muffin fans...i meant the big fan....180? or something like that. the one that made the "wind tunnel" effect..

Re: Removable Electronics
 

The answer is still the same, unless you want to turn it on/off. If you did, you could wire it to a spike.

Re: Removable Electronics
 

ok....thanks...i kinda wanna do that kind of idea for the electronics box next year. i like how it looks and how it works. it would have solved a lot of problems this year of, like, 6 ppl working on the robot at a time..

Re: Removable Electronics
 

This latest picture, posted by Pavan (thx much), shows off the globbable quick disconnect connectors quite well:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/28626

You can see that they have them lumped together into groups of fours....

Jacob

Re: Removable Electronics
 

:ahh: WOW....just.....wow....man, i gotta do that next year.. do you know if they had any cooling problems with everything that close together? and do the wires going to the victors connected with o-connectors? or do they have, like, heat-shrink or something similar on them?

Re: Removable Electronics
 

Where are those quick disconnect connectors available to purchase?...I would love to add those to our board design this next season.

Re: Removable Electronics
 

As mentioned earlier, they are Anderson Power Pole connectors. One vendor is Powerwerx (http://www.powerwerx.com/Default.asp).

Re: Removable Electronics
 

How much does that approximately weight?

Re: Removable Electronics
 

Don

Re: Removable Electronics
 

My team has done the polycarbonate enclosure thing before. that pic from 116 looks a lot like the "brain box" my ream worked on about the same time, but we never adopted the design. ours was almost the exact same but with 2 120mm fans and it was translucent blue plastic. ours didn't work out in the end though, when we forgot to take into account wiring. that ever so important flexible copper that links it all together is just a little more bulky than most people realize, and we never did try making a new box with an additional 1" on all directions.

we currently Velcro the parts to sheet metal attached to the frame covered with a Lexan plate that removes with several screws, and also has some hinged doors for frequently accessed parts like the programming port. this plastic sheet that covers the robot frame is also a convenient place for sponsor stickers to cover where there isn't anything interesting to look at through the clear plastic.