Power signal Connectors?

[Andrew Blair]

I am considering designing a modular electronics box in which components ( spikes, victors) are mounted to a piece of lexan, and all wires, voltage input, motor output, pwm, are all on one connector at the edge of the board, like a stick of RAM. I am currently considering these, Crown Edge Connectors , as they can carry both power and signal in one easy package, but I imagine they will be absolutely outrageous. Does anyone know of good connectors like I'm talking about?

[BrianBSL]

You could try using Anderson Powerpoles - they link togeather. www.powerwerx.com sells some. You would have to make a custom bracket to mount them, however, and using them for signal would end up with some huge connectors. You are probally best off with a seperate signal and power connector.

[John Gutmann]

make your own connector if need be, how thick is the lexan if more then like 1/8" put it on a mill and take the edge down
take a piece of the copper clad circuit board and etch a small strip and put it on the edge of the lexan with screws then for the female end make a simple 5 sided boxbut on the side opposite the opening take an end mil and mill out a like edge that is alternating for strips of copper that can be put theour and have a hole drilled in the outside edge so wire can be soldered to it or to a circuit board na dten just bend the copper in side the female end so they act like springs with constant contact

if that doesnt suit you then get something like the power connector for power supplies in computers, i believe they have 20-24 connections i dont remember exactly how many

[sanddrag]

I would strongly recommend that you do not make your own connector. As previously mentioned, Anderson PowerPoles are good, but you will have to come up with a mounting method. www.robotmarketplace.com sells them too.

[Andrew Blair]

Thanks guys, but if possible I would like to have it all in one nice little unit to simplify things. Actually, could you safely hack a serial cable and put our 12 volts dc through it?

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Thanks guys, but if possible I would like to have it all in one nice little unit to simplify things. Actually, could you safely hack a serial cable and put our 12 volts dc through it?

For running power to spikes, etc? No way, the conductors are not large enough to handle that much current for any length, plus it would not be FIRST legal. The insulation is surely rated for 12V DC, but the current is what is important.

You could easily have 2 harnesses, one for pwm signal, and another for power i/o. You are not going to find anything reasonably priced that has 20 or so 40A contacts and another 20 signal contacts, epically not on an edge connector. And, I too would avoid making your own connector, for various reasons, but most importantly safety.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I might suggest a hybrid connection where all the high current connections are made through PowerPoles which can be keyed for foolproof mating and a smaller connector for controls. Check Digikey and you will find that manufacturers like Molex make mounting hardware for their connectors as does PowerPole. I have seen (and inspected) teams using this configuration that were legal under FIRST rules. One caveat is that the assembly is now part of the electrical connection. If you do not have some way of holding the electrical connectors together they will become intermittent during competition.

[mechanicalbrain]

Im also looking at making a electrical box. Im only planning part placement right now but ive started looking at connectors and considered two ideas. One would be the power poles, and the other is using a wire harness but im not sure about the legality of doing this. On a side note im wondering if anyone knows which serial pin provides +5 volt power to the transmitter/reciever?

[Hutch]

Originally Posted by mechanicalbrain

On a side note im wondering if anyone knows which serial pin provides +5 volt power to the transmitter/reciever?

For all of your pinout needs, http://pinouts.ru/

More specifically though, http://pinouts.ru/pin_SerialPorts.shtml

[mechanicalbrain]

Originally Posted by Hutch

For all of your pinout needs, http://pinouts.ru/

More specifically though, http://pinouts.ru/pin_SerialPorts.shtml

I've been there and im not sure which cable we use and many of those diagrams say the power is a different pin.

[Hutch]

Yeah, I guess sometimes pinouts.ru is a bit much... Anyhow, according to http://www.aggsoft.com/rs232-pinout-...and-signal.htm there is no power output, just a shared ground. Anyhow, you could always put a voltmeter to it.

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Hutch

Yeah, I guess sometimes pinouts.ru is a bit much... Anyhow, according to http://www.aggsoft.com/rs232-pinout-...and-signal.htm there is no power output, just a shared ground. Anyhow, you could always put a voltmeter to it.

Isn't the radio RS-485 or one of those 4xx ones? I could be wrong tho.

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by BrianBSL

For running power to spikes, etc? No way, the conductors are not large enough to handle that much current for any length, plus it would not be FIRST legal. The insulation is surely rated for 12V DC, but the current is what is important.

You could easily have 2 harnesses, one for pwm signal, and another for power i/o. You are not going to find anything reasonably priced that has 20 or so 40A contacts and another 20 signal contacts, epically not on an edge connector. And, I too would avoid making your own connector, for various reasons, but most importantly safety.

Well, actually, I was considering only putting one spike or victor on one lexan piece/electrical connect. So I will only need 4 forty amp connectors and 3 signal connectors. I don't know if this makes anything more available.

[BrianBSL]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Well, actually, I was considering only putting one spike or victor on one lexan piece/electrical connect. So I will only need 4 forty amp connectors and 3 signal connectors. I don't know if this makes anything more available.

You could just use 3 pins of a .100 in header and 4 powerpoles for that, held in place by some type of custom bracket. Using the .100 in header would allow you an "emergency mode" of plugging in a regular pwm cable, as well (its the same type of connector that is on the RC).