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Originally Posted by Anne Bergeron
3. Make sure battery is easy to replace but secure. During competition, there is often very little time between matches (especially during eliminations). Easy battery change outs are therefore very important but it’s also important that the battery won’t fall out during a match so make sure it is secure.
6. Use a good crimper. Good crimps on all connectors are very important to make sure the robot continues to run. Many robots have become disabled on the field because of connections coming loose.
8. Make sure all connections are insulated. Use insulated connectors or electrical tape for all connections. Be careful of this especially on the battery connectors and the 120 amp fuse, inspectors will be checking those carefully.
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Read the technical white paper by Al, "Robot Battery and Electrical System Guide". A must for all who will even think about touching the batteries.
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Originally Posted by Anne Bergeron
7. Organize wiring. Make sure to label all wiring so that if components need to be replaced, rewiring is faster and easier. Also make sure to keep wiring neat and out of the way of moving components. Use wire ties, Velcro, etc to tie down wiring. Judges love to see a neat wiring job.
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A good P-Touch labeler (and loads of extra label tape) is your friend! Just don't leave it unattended for more than a few minutes or you'll find that the one student with nothing to do will label items like "hammer", "drill", or "me"
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Originally Posted by Anne Bergeron
9. Reduce wiring. Wiring adds quite a bit of weight. Make sure to use as little as needed. Long lengths of wiring also add resistance which decreases the effectiveness of the battery.
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After re-wiring our 2004 robot to prepare it for the Cal Games, we lost ~7 pounds. Scary!
A good multimeter is a must - we often use a DC Clamp meter to measure the Amps drawn by the motors to diagnose problems while the robot is running. The one we use is measures up to 400 Amps - so you can even check your total current draw during certain maneuvers.