Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
I normally caution teams on this type of electrical tray design. It is very difficult to troubleshoot and replace defective components.
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Interesting that you mention this, and I agree...of all the design considerations on the electrical component layout, serviceability should be way up at the top. Unfortunately this means it usually ends up taking up a lot of area, and requires also designing the rest of the robot around access to the electronics panel. On the plus side, if you design the robot to be modular, then you can quickly remove whatever might be in the way of the panel, and this modularity can help in other ways. The 1726 robot for 2007 has a quickly removable mast/arm assembly, with a 25 pin connector for all the arm sensor wires, so there is no need to mess with the individual PWM cables when working on it.
It might be helpful to lay out the Spikes and Victors flat, in rows, with the terminals facing the sides, rather than facing each other. Or perhaps the Victors and power distribution components could be on a bottom panel, and have a top hinged panel for the components that use "small" wires, that can be quickly swung out of the way.
In any case, now is the time to be thinking about it and learning how to make the drawings in Inventor, so kudos to 1527!