Driving on carpet
 

So my team was driving around on a carpeted part of the shop today and spinning the wheels all over the place for about 5 minutes. When one of the mentors on the team went to go touch the chassis he got a pretty big shock from it. Apparently the plastic has the "wool socks on carpet" effect. Is this something I should be looking out for? I mean...some of the components in the kit came in special bags to protect against static shock, I would hate to ruin all the components on the board because I touched them:( . Anyone else experienced this??

Re: Driving on carpet
 

This also happens when running on REGOLITH. Every time we would go up to the robot we would get a decent static shock. It was much more prominent on carpet though.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

is it something to be worried about? If the cRio and other components are insulated from the chassis does it matter?

Re: Driving on carpet
 

how long were you driving for?

i wouldent want to chance it.......

Re: Driving on carpet
 

I think it was only for 5 minutes, but like I said there was tons of wheel spin (like, donuts the whole time:P )

Re: Driving on carpet
 

Which is totally unavoidable :P

I wonder if something like the vibration dampers on the "feet" of the compressor would help at all? (If it is a problem) It is my understanding that the bolt does not run all the way through the damping system thus making it insulated.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

Oh jeeze. Are you serious?? Did FIRST think about the chance that it might cause static electricity??

Re: Driving on carpet
 

Is it even a problem though if the electronics board is isolated from the chassis?

Re: Driving on carpet
 

I dunno. It shouldn't be, I don't think. Mind you it is my first year doing electrical stuff.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

I can't envision it being any problem. It'll be a shocker if it is.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

Shouldn't be a problem. Our 06 bot turned out to be an unintentional Van De Graph generator, so we could get a HUGE jolt by touching the frame after any match. Lucky we had a crazy freshman who kinda liked it!

Re: Driving on carpet
 

I don't believe it will be a problem either, since most teams mount their electronics on lexan/polycarbonate, no additional precautions are really necessary.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

Traction wheels on carpet generate static electricity too. We've usually put a short grounding strap/chain on our robot when practicing at our facility, just to keep from zapping the students. It sounds like we'll be needing one again this year.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

We have put one on the practice robot and it seems to be working.

Re: Driving on carpet
 

So the wheels are stripping electrons off of the ground and giving the chassis a negative charge while leaving the ground positive. The opposite charges will then attract thus increasing the force of the robot on the regolith. Will this be counted as an extra traction device?:P