Complications/restrictions of vertically mounted controll panels

[BOBBEY!!!!]

I was wondering if anyone knew of any complications and/or restrictions that are caused by mounting the control panel vertically.

[Jim Smith]

I've seen controls mounted vertical before. Make sure the wires are tie-wraped to some support, so the vibrations don't cause the 2 and 3 pin connections to come off. Supporting the wires near these somewhat fragile connectors is a good idea no matter which way is up.

[illumanat'i]

my team had half and half, with the relays and breakers flat and the interface on its side (saved space) - no real problems anyway you do it as long as your sure your robot can handle a hit without turning off (unlike some robots last year . . . . very sad)

[srjjs]

What about having it upside-down?

[ChrisH]

We have put the electronis in all sorts of positions, even upside down. Other than the occasional wire coming loose, we've never had a problem. After all, electrons don't pay a whole lot of attention to gravity.

[Katie Reynolds]

We mounted our relays upside down last year - we hot glued the cables in so they wouldn't fall out. As a general rule, if we have and 2-3 pin connectors, we hot glue/electrical tape them! That way we know they're not going anywhere!

- Katie

[David Kelly]

it really doesnt matter what orentation you put the control board. i dont think gravity affects the flow of electricity. the only thing you should consider is that you need to be able to see the led's on the board. it's somewhere in the FIRST rules

[Stephen Kowski]

I believe the controller can be mounted as long as the leds on it are visible, so im not sure how you would pull off it being upside down, but vertical is just fine

[evulish]

Circuit breakers pointed towards the front or rear of the robot can be bad...if you hit something full speed, you could get them switched. I saw it happen to many teams. We mounted ours vertically so the switch went up or down...we never switched off accidently. If you do mount your breaker facing front, zip-ties work nicely for making sure you don't flip the breaker (We made sure our allies did it...)

[srjjs]

I wasn't really referring to the flow of electricity, I know the weight of an electron is insignificant.
I meant the ease of access to it.

[Andy144]

Last year we mounted our controller upside down, which in and of itself presented no problems, but because of lack of space we ended up attached it to the very outside of our chasis and a piece of plexiglass. NOT a smart thing to do, eventhough we didn't have any drastic consequences because of it, one nasty hit and we would have broken our controller . . . not good!

[EvilInside]

Well, this is Team 706's first appearance on these boards, and I"d just like to say hi fromt he team. Last year we mounted our circuit board vertically, and had no complications. However, we did put in some guard bars on the outside to prevent ramming action from damaging our controls. Accessability is not a problem if you just take care to NOT block the tether port (like we did). Later.

[Matt Leese]

Theoretically, there can be issues with the ball bearings in the fans on the speed controllers. Mounted at non-horizontal, the ball bearings could fall out. I say theoretically because I've never seen it happen even having mounted electronics on its side. Just something to think about.

Matt

[Gadget470]

Keep in mind that bot (66's) was from the year of 4 v 0 alliances. A few robots did take some solid slams though, whether or not 66 did I don't know. But that's an example of a fully functional bot with a non-horizontal controller

[Addison]

That location worked well for us. We never had any problems with the controler even in the few nasty falls from a bridge that would not flip over. The key thing is to have quick and easy access to the controler.