Electrical connectors on control system items

[timytamy]

Originally Posted by Christopher149

The screw connector for powering the roboRIO (and previously cRIO). I don't know if we were using it wrong, but especially on the cRIO, the wires would too frequently come out or be loose.

I like to call screw terminals like these the best bad connector you will use. They're relativley versitile, flexible, easy-ish to use with medium pincounts. However they will never be better than a more specilised conector.

On to the OP's question:
I'm not interested in any new connections unless there are some very good reasons. Inventory management is a PITA, and it's much easier to maintain an inventory of 100x of one conector, vs 25x of 4 different ones. For this reason I'm willing to make reasonable comprimises on all the advantages/disadvantages you mentioned, for connectors already in common use.

This is all the more important if your intended market is ALL of FRC, ie not just the average to powerhouse teams that already have things like this worked out. Having helped many rookie and low-resource teams wire up robots, trust me when I say there is enough in the combination of Wago, Weildermuller, [3-pin only] PWM etc already.

It's a little different if your targeting just the medium-powerhouse teams. As other others have already mentioned Powerpoles, custom .1in (ie other than 3pin PWM), rings and spades, IDC, USB and ethernet etc all have some really good use cases.

[Ernst]

Originally Posted by Knufire

I really like the connectors on the US Digital S4/E4 series encoders. Browsing around on their website, it looks like it's a 1.25mm pitch Molex PicoBlade connector.

https://youtu.be/0bRyezC_P0M?t=141

The big thing I enjoy about them are the friction locks, they feel much more secure than standard 0.1 header connectors. I wouldn't mind a bigger pitch than 1.25mm though for FRC use though.

Huh, I've always hated those. The attached wires were always a pain and usually messy, plus unplugging them didn't always go well.

We started using some custom .1in connectors this year for different sensors, like a 5-pin one for Grayhill encoders and some 2-pin ones. Those worked well when done correctly, but our quality control wasn't great, and a few connectors made it onto the robot that might have given us some intermittent signals. We're learning, though, and I think we'll go back to them and use more next year.

We also had some trouble with several Weidmuller connectors. No matter how many times we tried with different wires that were the correct gauge and stripped the correct length, a few connectors just wouldn't work. Others were perfect and lasted all season. We picked up some ferrules to try to address that next year.

The 3-pin connectors are decent. We wound up taping and zip-tying a lot together, though, so we might pick up some VEX EDR connector clips. I'm a bit disappointed that the RoboRIO has male pins. We had one of those connectors come loose despite us using 3D printed cable management/spacing inserts. Other than a giant 10-connector female-to-female converter that plugs into all of them and reinforces everything, I don't really know how to address that.

I haven't personally used the XT or Deans connectors, but, given the option, I would stick with Powerpoles. They can clip together to make large plugs, they're easy to lock together, and we have tons of them stockpiled.

[MattRain]

Originally Posted by Greg Needel

[*]Anderson Powerpole - main battery connector & commonly wire to wire connections - medium price, good quick release, hard to crimp without special tool

Deans connectors - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S7G4A14/ instead of power poles or wagos

Deans Connectors: Hate these things. A'lot of RC's use them, but I've always had issues with them.

Anderson Power Poles: Go with these. I absolutely love these. FTC switched over to a new control system that uses these in pretty much everything, so my teams have a large stockpile of them. After having the right tool, they are easy to work with! My teams love the fact that you can create large blocks of connections, which has already been said in this thread. Allows us to remove parts easily to work on parts of the robot or to switch out. Some of the electrical students on my FRC team saw them this past year, and want to make the switch to them next season.

[AustinSchuh]

Molex connectors (http://www.molex.com/webdocs/datashe..._HOUSINGS.pdf). They are polarized and latch pretty well. We've gotten pretty good at crimping them.

[Jefferson]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

Molex connectors (http://www.molex.com/webdocs/datashe..._HOUSINGS.pdf). They are polarized and latch pretty well. We've gotten pretty good at crimping them.

Looks like you got that close parentheses in your url. Here's a working link.

[anthonyttu]

I think it would be nice to see a pair of two or a single four pin connectors on the CAN cables for the Tallon SRX's. That way if you pre-terminate spare controllers it could be changed out with mounting the new one and plugging it in.

http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...2083-ND/141479

http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...2019-ND/141249

[Peter Johnson]

Originally Posted by anthonyttu

I think it would be nice to see a pair of two or a single four pin connectors on the CAN cables for the Tallon SRX's. That way if you pre-terminate spare controllers it could be changed out with mounting the new one and plugging it in.

We do exactly this with the 2-pin Latching Polarized (LP) 0.1" connectors from Hansen Hobbies (1). Put male on one pair and female on the other pair and daisy chaining is a cinch. The connectors have a plastic spring latch so won't come apart under vibration and are polarized so they can't be plugged in backwards. We put stub connections (short wire and connector) on other devices like the roboRio and CTRE products so we only need to deal once with insertion/removal into those connectors.

1: http://www.hansenhobbies.com/product...nlpconnectors/

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by timytamy

On to the OP's question:
I'm not interested in any new connections unless there are some very good reasons. Inventory management is a PITA, and it's much easier to maintain an inventory of 100x of one conector, vs 25x of 4 different ones. For this reason I'm willing to make reasonable comprimises on all the advantages/disadvantages you mentioned, for connectors already in common use.

This, this, this.

Also, while many teams have Power Poles as an internal standard (3946 among them), I am not aware of any standard FRC parts which require/strongly encourage teams to use them. They do meet all the requirements (current capacity, well insulated, vibration resistant) and many "desirements) (modular, customizable, polarizable). They also have a great customer base outside of FRC (ham radio and R/C modeling, and probably others).

[wireties]

My biggest concern is non-latching connectors. In a high-vibration and relatively high shock environment like a FRC robot it is mal-practice to use non-latching non-polarized connectors. They don't have to be fancy or super expensive but really should have a latch.

And like other posters, I prefer screw-type terminals.

[Peter Johnson]

Originally Posted by wireties

My biggest concern is non-latching connectors. In a high-vibration and relatively high shock environment like a FRC robot it is mal-practice to use non-latching non-polarized connectors. They don't have to be fancy or super expensive but really should have a latch.

While power poles aren't natively latching, we use the little orange clips that powerwerx sells. They're easy to install and have been very robust for us. My only other complaint with power poles is that the crimp doesn't grab the insulation (only the wire) so pull-out can be an issue. We make sure to tug-test every crimp and prefer the 45a contacts for all but the smallest wires as they seem to grab the wire better.

[Chris is me]

228 uses Deans connectors and I think they're fine. You have to solder the wire to them, sure, but other than that they are a robust connector that clips together securely and nicely. Soldering and shrink tubing the wires to each lead helps them hold securely. Never had an issue with them failing a pull test.

If you go all in with the tooling, Anderson connectors are very robust. I don't particularly care for the whole snapping multiple connectors into one big block thing. Spade connectors are okay I guess.

Almost any connector, latching or otherwise, can be made more secure with heat shrink tubing to hold it together. It's difficult to accidentally pull apart a spade connector if the tubing constrains it geometrically.

[Michael Corsetto]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

Molex connectors (http://www.molex.com/webdocs/datashe..._HOUSINGS.pdf). They are polarized and latch pretty well. We've gotten pretty good at crimping them.

+1. We've been using molex connectors ever since we started using the Spartan Board in 2015. The latching is very nice

-Mike

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Peter Johnson

We do exactly this with the 2-pin Latching Polarized (LP) 0.1" connectors from Hansen Hobbies (1). Put male on one pair and female on the other pair and daisy chaining is a cinch. The connectors have a plastic spring latch so won't come apart under vibration and are polarized so they can't be plugged in backwards. We put stub connections (short wire and connector) on other devices like the roboRio and CTRE products so we only need to deal once with insertion/removal into those connectors.

1: http://www.hansenhobbies.com/product...nlpconnectors/

We did the same on our can bus this year. Worked wonderfully.

[wireties]

Originally Posted by Peter Johnson

While power poles aren't natively latching, we use the little orange clips that powerwerx sells. They're easy to install and have been very robust for us. My only other complaint with power poles is that the crimp doesn't grab the insulation (only the wire) so pull-out can be an issue. We make sure to tug-test every crimp and prefer the 45a contacts for all but the smallest wires as they seem to grab the wire better.

We use wire ties to make sure the power poles stay together. I always forget to buy the little orange clips.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by wireties

We use wire ties to make sure the power poles stay together. I always forget to buy the little orange clips.

Tiny zip ties work really well for securing PowerPoles too, that's how I've always done them.