[Matt Reiland]

Originally Posted by Ken Patton

Some good guidelines here, but I have a few questions for you guru's:

1. Why do you say to use velcro instead of zipties? Seems to me there would be less stress on the wire bundle to just snip off a ziptie than there would be to try and rip the velcro.

2. What brands of super-flexible wire are you using? (I know Paul Copioli and 217 have used this stuff on their well-organized wiring jobs - they are my benchmark for great wiring).

3. Aren't you supposed to solder the end BEFORE crimping? This is called tinning I believe.

One idea that we have used the last few years: rather than hard mount the polycarbonate control-mounting-board to the robot, we have "suspended" it trampoline style from the frame. Seems to me that this is lighter and it provides some amount of isolation from the vibration of the robot.

Ken

1.The Velcro/Zpties debate has went around quite a bit in the manufacturing environment for the plants. We used to see tons of zip ties on the robot and tool dress, some of them waaaay to tight causing a failure point. We then moved on to rubber straps that had some give and were reusable. However we found that people put them on way to tight just like the zip ties and the rubber broke down VERY fast and failed. So the current method is both, but take care not to pull with all your might which can cut into the insulation on the wires, I like things to be 'snug'

2.For wire I recommend Deans wet noodle , it is hard to find in 10ga though.
http://www.robotcombat.com/marketplace_wire.html