[Jon Stratis]

Ideally, there would be no exposed wires/connectors on the machine. From a practical standpoint, that's not really possible - the screw terminals on the Jaguars/victors, the bolts on the main circuit breaker, and the bolts on the power distribution board are generally all exposed. While you can wrap them up (as you suggested, electrical tape or hot glue can cover them up), doing so really reduces the utility and intended use of those items - they're designed like that for easy access, and should remain as such. For the battery... we completely cover the terminals with heat shrink. No exceptions - in fact, it's a rule (<R37> C).

For everything else, all wire should be completely covered. The spade connectors we (and probably just about every other team) use come with insulation that not only covers the connection to the wire, but extends past the connectors a bit. This makes it very easy to overlap the insulation on the wire and the insulation on the connector, without compromising the connection. Most other connectors in common use have similar overlapping insulation available.

For covering splices, heat shrink is always the optimal choice. That's what it's made for. While electrical tape certainly works (provided you overlap it with the insulation on the wire), it's suboptimal. Over time, it will come loose. A corner gets loose, which then lets anything rubbing against it pull it up more and more... a problem you don't have with heat shrink. That doesn't mean you can't use electrical tape. It's just something to be aware of and think through the usage of that wire.


On our robot, all electronic components sit on a ESD-safe material. All of our wires are securely mounted with zip ties. Almost all of our wires are twisted pair. As a result, if any one wire comes loose during competition, it simply can't move enough to short to the frame. It may short to it's companion, but that will simply trip the circuit breaker.

Further, there are no direct connections between any of our electrical board components and the motors/sensors on the robot - we using intermediate connectors (Anderson PowerPole) between the board and the robot. The housing on these connectors wraps completely around the contacts, which will prevent most accidental shorts if one of them is left loose accidentally.

Further, our wires and connectors are all color coded. The PowerPole connectors are coded according to current rating, and different color connectors don't mate properly. This ensure at the points of contact that we know both sides are rated the same. Likewise, our wires are color coded - white/black twisted pair for 12 gauge (40A breakers), red/black for 14 gauge (30A breakers). Sure, we can also use 18 gauge (20A breakers)... but we generally don't keep any of that at our build space. It doesn't hurt anything to use 14 gauge with the 20A breakers, and doing so prevents any problems if the wrong breaker is put in (after all, the 20A and 30A breakers look a lot alike!).