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Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain
You know I looked at this stuff a couple months ago but Im not so sure about it. It looks bulky to me. Can anyone who has handled it atestify?
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I work with it almost everyday as I build and service robots and other automation equipment where I work.
It's available in many different sizes and some of them will be very bulky for use on a FIRST robot. The smaller sizes would work quite well for movement/extension of assemblies though and could have a place on one of our robots.
Also keep in mind that within the different physical sizes they also offer different bend radiuses.
Something else I didn't mention in my above post because it won't really apply for our use here, is possible electrical interference. If you're running high and low voltage (or signal) wires through the same chain is keep them on opposite sides and never sharing the same space in the chain. With them being next to each other there's a possiblity of electrical interference.
We've had this problem where I work. Our robot's motors run on 400 volts and if the motor wires are run right next to any signal wires, even if they have a shield, there could be problems. Some of our energy chains reach upwards of 30'. In the world of FIRST this isn't a big factor because we don't use high voltages on our robots and any energy chain being used is only likely to hold pnuematic tubing and wires carrying 12v for our motors.