Best CAN Connector Interface

[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by ozrien

We sell a CAN connector that uses the same wire-insert strategy as PCM and PDP for coupling two Talon SRXs together.
http://www.ctr-electronics.com/can-c...or-5-pack.html
This way teams can chain them up without soldering and therefore can make changes to the robot quickly.

Personally, I would have liked the Talon SRX to have included the above connectors built right in to the device for the CAN interface.

[droswell]

We used Anderson 15A power poles to have a quick disconnect for our CAN bus. A bit overkill? Sure. But they worked great and with the right crimping tool were a breeze to install. We also use the 45A on the mains. By changing the orientation of the connectors we could make it impossible to plug the wrong thing in the wrong place. We get them here:

http://www.powerwerx.com/anderson-po...ings-contacts/

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by Ken Streeter

Personally, I would have liked the Talon SRX to have included the above connectors built right in to the device for the CAN interface.

This was considered during development of the Talon SRX. However the overall footprint and weight of the device would have increased. It was decided that, due the increase in real estate, and the fact that teams have their own preferred methods of connectorization, it made sense to use the existing strategy.

[DavidOrser]

This thread has quite a few good ideas, but I thought I'd share our solution as well. We originally tried DC barrel-plug power connectors and 3.5mm headphone jacks, but the available connectors from Digikey were too expensive and the cheap ones we got from Amazon were of very poor build quality (didn't fit well, solder terminals kept shorting). In addition these solutions still required electrical tape to keep them secure and short free.

We finally settled on these small gauge Wago "Lever Nuts":
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HIOP6SC

They are *extremely* robust and require no soldering or shrink tubing and are tool-less to change out or reconfigure. They have zero exposed wire to risk shorting. When stress testing them we broke the 28awg stranded CAN wire before the connector teeth gave out. The only downside is they can be a bit rough on the fingers when opening and closing. To wrap it all up, they are *cheap* and fast at $0.30 per connector with free (Prime) 2day shipping.

One of our best finds this season

Good luck out there!