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Re: Wiring in general help
If you can, plan the layout of your electronics while you're planning the rest of the robot. It's easier to wire neatly if you're able to put the components in a nice row on a single plane, with a space in between to channel the wires, as opposed to cramming each component wherever it will fit.
We also kept a consistent naming/numbering convention and labelled all the wires accordingly. Our robot has four drivetrain motors and two intake/mechanism motors. When looking at the robot from a top view we declared that the motors would be numbered in order from top to bottom, left to right. 1-2-3, 4-5-6. Left side: intake motor is 1, forward drive motor is 2, rear drive motor is 3. Right side: intake motor is 4, then drive motors 5 and 6. We stuck with this convention for everything. The PWM ports for these motors are 1,2,3, and 4,5,6. The encoders for the drive motors are on DIO's 2 and 3, and 5 and 6. On the PDP, they're wired in that same order on the left and right side 40A channels. Very predictable.
Making time for good wiring is something you need to enforce if you want it to happen. Even I was pushing for "let's just get it done" as we approached crunch time. The electrical mentor insisted that we do it right. We did, and the wiring (a) looks amazing, (b) is easy to figure out and troubleshoot, and (c) never once failed us during two rigorous regionals.
Last edited by GreyingJay : 10-04-2016 at 22:21.
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