FTC Wire Cleanup Ideas?

[Cuttlefish2014]

Hi All.

We, as a team, were wondering what is the best way to cleanup wires in an FTC Robot? Like the motor DC Controller Wires, Etc.


Thanks


Team Cuttlefish

[pyroslev]

The FTC Team Resources pages has a well written document or two that will help you with this.

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...team-resources

The obvious document of choice is the Robot Wiring Guide but I'd advise you to read the Samantha document and the document Addressing NXT Lockups. Combining the knowledge of the three should give you all the knowledge you need.

[nicholsjj]

Our team uses a cut up piece of Perforated Polycarb in order as a bellypan type of set up for our wiring. Zip ties work well with it and it does, even though not well, mount to the Textrix channel. http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2227.htm We are also using the polycarb as the base for our collector, but that will be for a revel.

We also 3-D printed the AndyMark Samantha Module bracket with good results. http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-sambracket.htm

I will try to post pictures of what we have so far as far as electronics go latter tonight during build.

[nicholsjj]

The pictures were a bit big, but I did post them up to a new ftc facebook album if you wanted to see the wiring. Keep in mind this is our FIRST year in FTC so we haven't learned all of the neat tips and tricks yet.
https://www.facebook.com/unitec.shoc...3677206&type=1

[Cuttlefish2014]

Hi nicholasjj. Thanks for all your help. I talked this over with my team, and I plan to try it out today when we have our meeting. Thanks again.

Team Cuttlefish 6165 2014-2015 Season.

[pyroslev]

Originally Posted by nicholsjj

The pictures were a bit big, but I did post them up to a new ftc facebook album if you wanted to see the wiring. Keep in mind this is our FIRST year in FTC so we haven't learned all of the neat tips and tricks yet.
https://www.facebook.com/unitec.shoc...3677206&type=1

The perfed polycarb is smart choice but I do see some things that could stand some work.

First tip I'll say is opt for Anderson Powerpoles over that inferior Tamiya. It's one of those, "If I had a nickel for every time that one part has hurt a team..." moments. Seen more matches go to pot for a team cause of that than everything else combined.

Daisy chaining the power and data for controllers is not bad but I wouldn't advise it. Make your own Power Distro Board using Powerpoles or buy one from PowerWerx that is Powerpole compatible. Either works to great effect.

The wires going to the motors look great. Just take care of those connectors on the motors. They can be fragile.

The rest of what I would advise all comes from the Wiring Guide on the Team resource pages, as well as the other document. You can learn a lot from those documents and other teams at your first competition. Good luck.