Quote:
Originally Posted by jhersh
This was actually considered a design enhancement originally. The idea was if the screws are painted a color code, then it will be LESS likely that teams will accidentally wire them up backward and set fire to them. But what if a team fully removes the screws and replaces them in the wrong place... then the color code is misleading. Ok... make the screws retained so that they won't be easily removed all the way, thus helping to ensure the color code stays correct.
After a year of teams overpowering the retention, TI must have decided that if teams are going to take them out anyway, the may as well not have metal shavings inside on top of the possible bad color coding.
Essentially, what was intended to help teams, only hurt them more since they didn't follow instructions.
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I wouldn't have considered this a design enhancement. I've always considered ring connectors to be much safer than fork connectors. A loose terminal screw will not result in a stray wire loose in a robot frame.
Also, weren't ring terminals given in the KOP? How do you get a ring terminal onto a screw without backing the screw completely out? We had zero burned out Jaguars last year and we backed out all of our screws to use ring terminals. I suspect the issue is something else.
Reverse polarity on the line side is the quickest way to smoke a speed controller, so why not place color coding on the case so that when careless people remove the screws they get back in the correct positions? Also, while the case on the Jaguars is much more user friendly at preventing metal filings getting where they shouldn't, it's not fool-proof. Many teams claim they're careful about metal filings, but I can't count the number of times I've witness teams drilling, filing, grinding, or cutting (Dremel cutoff wheels are a big one) over vital electronics with no cover to catch flying chips and dust. They don't see any metal chips or filings, but there is conductive dust from the cutoff wheels everywhere.