Power Distibution Board - Broken stud

[de_]

Our 2013 power distribution boards stud broke on the first usage BEFORE the nut was even tight (power cable still loose on stud). It was installed by a multi-year seasoned electrical guy. Yes it was the correct original metric nut. I presume there is no warranty. Thats 3 power distributions boards we have with damaged or broken studs. Thats $570 of not usable in the competition boards and I suspect a minimum of one out of every two boards we own.

If we are in that situation, chances are a lot of other teams are. So there could a thousand or more of these boards in this condition in the FIRST community. I do know the apparent reason the boards use a brass metric stud / pcb mount is there is not US equivalent. And its brass so it can be soldered to the PCB and handle the high currents. But with an ongoing 50% failure/damage rate we are seeing, its time for FIRST to work harder for a solution that will have a reasonable MTBF in the FIRST environment.

We have in past cut the studs off, drilled and tapped the brass block for a 1/4" steel bolt which seems work fine and handle the 120amp max current without any issues. Too bad FIRST will not allow its usage in the competitions.

Our 2013 Digital Side car was DOA this year so between the two boards thats over $350 after taxes and shipping we have to spend to replace the boards which both had a MTBF of 0 minutes apparently with no warranty.