[GeeTwo]

Am I missing something with all the electrical layouts I've seen this year (including from my own team)?

The PDB is designed as a "fishbone" pattern, with the mains power coming in at one end, specialty stuff at the other end, and power splitting out to either side.

Why haven't I seen a design that has talons (or other motor controllers) on both sides of the PDB? This design also has CAN crossing from (in the one shot that shows the whole board) from lower right to upper left, and PWMs (and RSL) crossing from upper right to lower left.


I'm also encouraged by the low number of Analog In and DIO ports I've seen populated. We're using all four Analogs on the R-RIO, and at least six of the DIO's for sensors, with backup plans for a few more if the camera code doesn't mature in time. I'm convinced that this game (up to the regional championship level, at least, possibly as far as entree into Einstein) goes to tams that gain speed through automation and smart use of sensors. Whether we get there remains to be seen (only one of our programmers has contributed notably to our code base in previous years), but as a programming mentor this year, I'm spending most of my time making sure that we have the sensors we will need to have a fighting chance; our other programming mentor (who has been working programming our whole time as a team) is doing most of the training. Of course, both of us are giving lots of advice.