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Unread 22-03-2015, 16:26
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FRC #1212 (Sentinels)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 36
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Re: #teamtether club

Team 1212 will be going to the Arizona West regional with a tethered bot. And by tethered, we have two completely identical (minus the electronics) robots. Each robot has 7 different motors, two limit switches, and a camera so there's a massive cable running between the two of them. If I remember correctly our 20 foot cable weighs something like 8 pounds.

We're using corrugated wrap around sleeving that's held together with electrical tape as casing for the wires. The sleeving has held up really well despite our relatively inexperienced (myself included) drivers constantly driving over it. It's relatively easy to drive over but it's a rather large bump so it's definitely noticeable. The tape has begun to come undone in a few areas but a fresh new strip will easily fix that. My only problem with it is that over time it has developed some kinks that may prove difficult to undo and it doesn't stretch quite to 20 feet, more like 18, which may be because there's lots of wire but the sleeving certainly doesn't help. Would it be worth it to go through the effort of switching to mesh sleeving? How well has it held up for other teams?

I'll try to post pictures or maybe a release video if we manage to make one in the next couple weeks. We still aren't quite done making minor adjustments and we haven't practiced a whole lot... it's going to be a very stressful Thursday making all the changes.