"Black Box" Electrical Board

[logank013]

So in 2014, we had a "roll cage" like thing for our electronics. It was held down by 4 allen bolts so it was fairly easy to take off. It was a see through blue and was made of some sort of plastic (I don't know what type since I'm on electronics and didn't make the box). If I remember right, it only protected the cRio and a few other small things. I don't think it protected the talons or victors. I believe it is still on our bot so I can take a picture of it tonight if you want me to. I take it this "black box" is to protect your electronics?

P.S. I'm not sure if it was ever used in a competition. I'm pretty sure it was, but I joined in the 2015 season.

[Danimal!]

After a wiring nightmare from the previous year, our team made an electronics box. We made side mounts for 45 Amp powerpole (Anderson) connectors. This allowed the box to be detachable. We added vents and fans to the box to help with cooling, but in general, heating was not an issue. Like some of the previous posters mentioned, you want to make sure that you have easy visual access to the status LEDs. We didn't have any issues with passing inspection. In fact, most of the inspectors appreciated the effort the team made to make the wiring as clean as possible. I recommend building a prototype of the box in the off-season. We built a prototype last summer, learned a ton, and then redesigned the box we used in the 2015 season from scratch using everything that we learned. Here are the CAD files that we used for 2015 box, the prototype, and our 2015 bot (so you can see how it attached to the robot).

http://riptiderobotics.com/resources/cad/

It's a lot of work, but the effort pays off. In roughly 40 matches, our 2015 bot had zero electrical issues.

[evanperryg]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

We always wait until we have at least a rough robot design before we start on the control board. The past two years, having a relatively large, flat control board worked well (belly pan, under the ball in 2014 Aerial Assist, and on the rear and low, but easily accessible for 2015 Recycle Rush). For AA, we arranged so the taller cRIO was to one side and the large parts of the pneumatics system were in the corners where they would not interfere with the ball. For RR, the roboRIO was low-profile, and we did not use any pneumatics.
...
In short, design your control board like you design your robot -- for example, if you make advance plans for three or four basic drive systems, make advance plans for three or four basic control layouts. Then, wait until you've done your game analysis, strategy selection, and at least high-level robot design before you do your control system physical design.

These are very important things to keep in mind. Take it from someone who was given the task of CADing the entire control system while the mechanical side of the robot was still being designed- don't waste your tine designing something that seems really good when your specs are going to change in a couple days. It's not worth the 3 weeks of headaches and late nights.

[Danimal!]

I found a website that will host 3D models that can be manipulated in your browser. Here is the electronics box that 4118 designed last season.

https://skfb.ly/ITCp

[Ari423]

Originally Posted by Danimal!

I found a website that will host 3D models that can be manipulated in your browser. Here is the electronics box that 4118 designed last season.

https://skfb.ly/ITCp

You can also try grabcad.com. Its a lot more commonly used and also automatically does file sharing and version control.

[Noudvanbrunscho]

http://teamrembrandts.com/archieven/2269?fb_ref=Default

Here is our 360 view of our 'Black Box' from last year, we made it very compact and easy to take out of the robot.

[philso]

Originally Posted by evanperryg

These are very important things to keep in mind. Take it from someone who was given the task of CADing the entire control system while the mechanical side of the robot was still being designed- don't waste your tine designing something that seems really good when your specs are going to change in a couple days. It's not worth the 3 weeks of headaches and late nights.

The relatively tight packaging constraints one has to work with in FRC robots make designing after your spec is understood an imperative.

Originally Posted by Danimal!

After a wiring nightmare from the previous year, our team made an electronics box. We made side mounts for 45 Amp powerpole (Anderson) connectors. This allowed the box to be detachable. We added vents and fans to the box to help with cooling, but in general, heating was not an issue. Like some of the previous posters mentioned, you want to make sure that you have easy visual access to the status LEDs. We didn't have any issues with passing inspection. In fact, most of the inspectors appreciated the effort the team made to make the wiring as clean as possible. I recommend building a prototype of the box in the off-season. We built a prototype last summer, learned a ton, and then redesigned the box we used in the 2015 season from scratch using everything that we learned. Here are the CAD files that we used for 2015 box, the prototype, and our 2015 bot (so you can see how it attached to the robot).

http://riptiderobotics.com/resources/cad/

It's a lot of work, but the effort pays off. In roughly 40 matches, our 2015 bot had zero electrical issues.

Congratulations on the significant improvement in reliability! Please be clear though. This increase in reliability was more likely due to greater thought and care being given to the layout and construction than the fact that your control system was enclosed in a box. Since putting in place a better construction standard that includes verifying the quality of all connections (crimps) we have had only one electrical failure in the last two years. That failure was a loose crimp in an old battery cable.