Protecting the roboRIO

[craigboez]

Over the years we have toasted a few digital sidecars by getting metal shavings into them. We try to be careful when drilling and fastening things to the robot, but inevitably some debris manage to find their way into the exposed terminals and then things go haywire. It would seem that the roboRIO will also be susceptible to ingress of small bits of robot.

Are there any electrical protections built into the roboRIO that will prevent bad things from happening if this occurs?

Have beta teams noticed any issues?

What have teams done in the past to safeguard against this? We have talked about mounting the roboRIO vertically, or adding shields or covers, etc.