Mounting the Robo-rio using Zip-ties?

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by electrical238

Thanks guy's, I just said that because last year at a competition we got in trouble with the pits for using zipties for our festos.

I know when I'm inspecting that if I see a team with something that is rules compliant, but that might interfere with robot reliability that I'll suggest a way to make an improvement.

"This isn't in the rules, and you don't have to change this..." is usually how I begin and, "so that's just a suggestion and it is entirely up to you. This is not an inspection item." is usually how I end. But if someone only heard the middle section of what I was saying... or if the story got relayed to them without the beginning and end parts... then it would be possible for them to think that whatever it is that I am suggesting is an inspection item.

Depending on how something is ziptied, I might make a suggestion on other ways to mount it. But depending on how something is bolted down I might make a suggestion, too. For instance, "I see you've used steel screws to bolt down your speed controllers and electronics. That is perfectly fine and within the rules, but did you know you can save over a pound of weight by using nylon screws? Not only that, but they are non-conductive. You don't need to change anything, but you might want to think about trying that for next year if you are close to your weight limit."

A statement like that could possibly be relayed to another team member as "the inspector said to not use steel screws on the electronics board because they are conductive".

I'm not saying that an inspector didn't question your use of zipties... but maybe they were trying to be helpful? Any chance of that?

Jason

P.S. One of my favorite ways to mount certain pneumatic valves is to run a 1/16" ziptie through the mounting hole and then slide a second ziptie over the end. The "heads" of the zip tie act like the head of a screw and a nut, holding the valve in place without requiring a loop as in most ziptie mountings.