Torn Banebots Motor Terminals

[DBortnick]

Oy, Team 1850 learned a good lesson today:

Don't attach wiring to your motors while you are still moving them around and mounting them. We had the terminals on our Banebots motors get torn off and mangled (see the attached picture).

Have any other teams had this happen in the past? Would soldering leads back on work? Any other ideas or does the motor just need to be replaced?

(Edit: The terminal on the left is the torn one and the one on the right was ripped clean off

Even more specifically would this break R33 sub point b?)
)

[Ether]

Originally Posted by DBortnick

Have any other teams had this happen in the past?

You're not alone.

Every team seems to need to learn this lesson the hard way:

When you attach the wires to the motor terminals, stress relieve them to the side of the motor case with epoxy or something.

BTW, I'm doing a little informal research: Does your camera have a macro button?

[MrBasse]

We cut ours short and solder on wires when we don't have room for a larger connection. Just be carful to avoid the motor case and don't melt the plastic insulation and it might work just fine. That ripped one may be tough though...

[DBortnick]

Originally Posted by Ether

You're not alone.

Every team seems to need to learn this lesson the hard way:

When you attach the wires to the motor terminals, stress relieve them to the side of the motor case with epoxy or something.

BTW, I'm doing a little informal research: Does your camera have a macro button?

I'm using the camera on my iphone 5. What are you trying to see?

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by DBortnick

I'm using the camera on my iphone 5. What are you trying to see?

The macro button on a camera makes taking close pictures like that clearer. Without it (either not using it, or using a cell phone camera that doesn't have one) and the close up detail becomes blurry.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Daniel,
We use crimp terminals that are right angle types. We of course solder everything, very carefully. Then the wires are formed down the side of the motor and ty-wrapped in place terminating in Anderson Power Poles. The rest of the wiring then runs along the frame and is ty-wrapped there as well.

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Daniel,
We use crimp terminals that are right angle types. We of course solder everything, very carefully. Then the wires are formed down the side of the motor and ty-wrapped in place terminating in Anderson Power Poles. The rest of the wiring then runs along the frame and is ty-wrapped there as well.

This is very similar to what we do.

OP: note that TWO zip-ties spaced some distance apart are required to anchor the wires to the motor can. If only one zip-tie is used it becomes a fulcrum and the motor tabs still get stressed.

[JDL]

We had a problem with that, we too started to use flag crimps and tacked them inplace with solder and put some glue around each connection for a little extra protection.

[DonRotolo]

What JamesCH75 wrote^^

We have had limited success in getting some solder onto ripped off terminals, but we won't use these for competition, only practice machines.

Terminal repairs that don't open the case are, in my opinion, perfectly legal.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Another good idea is to to take a small piece of PVC pipe and cut a section out of it so it looks like a C. You can than stretch that over the motor and have some of it stick out the back over the wires. This protect the wires from impact. Be careful not to cover the heating vents.

[DBortnick]

We are in the middle of soldering the terminals and double checking to make sure that it is isolated from the rest of the motor. We will then mount the wires in two different places to make sure that it is not jerked around.

Thanks all for your suggestions!

[DBortnick]

Originally Posted by JDL

We had a problem with that, we too started to use flag crimps and tacked them inplace with solder and put some glue around each connection for a little extra protection.

When you did this, did you have any issues with the heat from the wires melting the glue?

[JDL]

I used some 2 part epoxy.