pic: Bad Anderson Connector

[Daniel_LaFleur]

loading photo ...

[Gregor]

Report this to FIRST HQ as soon as possible. This happened last year too, and they had to send out massive warnings.

[lucas.alvarez96]

My paranoia went up 100%....I'll never look at a Anderson the same way again

[dtengineering]

So long as all your connectors are that way you'll be fine...

Right?

Jason

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

So long as all your connectors are that way you'll be fine...

Right?

Jason

Right, but *most* teams assume that the connectors are always the right way before attaching them, which can in cases like this cause extremely costly consequences. Also, I am pretty sure that this would be considered a violation of [R49]:

Originally Posted by FRC Game Manual

All non-SIGNAL LEVEL wiring with a constant polarity (i.e., except for outputs of relay modules, motor controllers, or sensor outputs) shall be color-coded as follows:
A. Red, white, brown, or black-with-stripe on the +24VDC, +12VDC, and +5VDC connections
B. Black or blue for the common or negative side (-) of the connections.

[team222badbrad]

This happened to us last year. See here:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...derson+warning

The good news is that it's an easy fix. All you need is a screw driver to switch the wires around by prying the connector contacts.

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by Whippet

Right, but *most* teams assume that the connectors are always the right way before attaching them, which can in cases like this cause extremely costly consequences. Also, I am pretty sure that this would be considered a violation of [R49]:

Sorry... I should have added a smiley, eh? You're quite right that wiring your robot this way would be a problem when it comes to sharing batteries or chargers with other teams.

But I'll suggest that it wouldn't be a violation of R49 so long as the red wire was attached to the positive battery terminal. There is no specific regulation requiring that labels or other markings match the wire colour, or that labels and markings be correct, only that the colour be correct. It could be argued that incorrect labeling falls under the catch-all areas of potential safety hazard, or failing to meet good engineering practice... but the "rules geek" in me has to point out that R49 is only about colour.

Jason

[donkehote]

We had one of these today. Unfortunately it wasnt one from the KOP, it was one of these
http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-0009.htm
Was kinda frustrated, but at least we know how to fix them.

[AndreaV]

As Donkehote mentioned 5031 got one of these flipped connectors from Andymark. We flipped the leads as suggested.

This past weekend our alliance captain, team 2013, The Cyber Gnomes needed a battery in the quarter finals. We lent them one of ours, this battery was dubbed "Omega".

With 90 seconds left the Gnomes got bumped and lost all power. Our one point dump defense bot and our alliance partner 4825 somehow miraculously squeaked out a win (actually I know how, tech fouls, the same kind that had lost us the match before and after this occurrence, oh wait that's another thread.)

After inspecting the battery it was clear that Omega's negative terminal slipped out. This should have cost us a quarterfinal match. No blame should go to Andymark, as they express shipped us a replacement lead right away, however in the excitement of build season this got overlooked. Omega served us well during build practice, and multiple practice and qualifying matches at GTRE. These things have a way popping up at the worst of times.

We felt horrible taking away the gnome's 2nd last chance to play at GTRE. Don't let this happen to you! If you have one of these flipped leads, toss it! It's not worth the risk!

[tbarban]

So that's what happened. I was only told by 2013 that it had to do with the battery, makes sense now.

[Tungrus]

It is the last thing that one would expect, QC process should have caught this at vendor's site. In 2012 the flat ribbon connecting cRIO and DS was reversed too!