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Unread 14-04-2016, 17:49
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davidaly46 davidaly46 is offline
Electrical Engineering - UT Dallas
AKA: David Aly
FRC #0148 (Robowranglers)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 6
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Re: Wiring in general help

148 design philosophy always centers on function, but form is not too far behind. From my years on pit crew and build team, here are some handy things i would recommend:

- NEVER make a wiring decision that could compromise the function of the system just to make it look a little better.

- Label.....label...label..label. LABEL!

- Use your time spent prototyping to get a feel for how your electrical system will come together, prototyping helps in more ways than just mechanical.

- Building a flexible system should be a high priority. Making extremely long runs through mechanical systems that have the potential to be replaced often, or even worse are designed to be removable, will make changes to the robot even harder. Liberal but efficient use of push and ring terminals will make these situations almost a breeze (if such a thing exists in FRC).

- Having a dedicated electrical team, or "sparkies" as they are referred to on 148, can be HUGELY beneficial. One or two mentors and a handful of students focusing on electrical/pneumatic systems will do wonders for your build and competition season.

- Have a dedicated section of your pit or workshop for housing electrical components and tools. This will help streamline your design and maintenance of the electrical systems.

- Using diagrams early in the build process, in my experience, tends to become rather useless. Electrical and pneumatic systems need to be dynamic in nature in order for mechanical systems, which determine much of your robot's performance, to be enhanced or changed at a moments notice. A better use of a diagram, or EE CAD file, would be to have one in your pit in order for students to become familiarized with the electrical system as the competition season progresses or for older robots whose systems wont change and just need to be maintained.

- Always carry zip-ties of a some form/shape/size in your pit as they are infinitely useful, and we have blown through hundreds at a single event. Luckily they are extremely inexpensive.

These are just a few of the big points i would tell a team looking to improve their electrical systems. I hope you think they are useful!
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