Hot Glue/Electrical Tape

[Jeff Zampieron]

Is it legal to use hot melt glue as an electrical insulator?
For that matter, is heat shrink tube legal. The flow chart is kinda
vague.

One more: Can i use electrical tape as a marker. It could be considered
a decoration. But then its kinda functional in a round-about manner.

How about using paint for the same purpose? I can't remember anywhere in the manual about materials for marks (think like optical sensors).

[Joe Ross]

This year (and last year) materials are legal unless specifically made illegal. Thus, heat shrink tubing is legal.

As far as hot glue as an insulator, it does act as one, but isn't sold as such, thus I doubt it would qualify as "properly insulated". However, if you were to hot glue the battery terminals, and then wrap in electrical tape, I beleive that would be acceptable.

Tape is only allowed as an electrical insulator or reflective tape used for an encoder (See the Q/A for the reflective tape). However going back to the fact that things are legal unless made illegal, paint would be legal for the same purpose. However, if you use more then $1 worth, it must be accounted for in your BOM.

[Gene F]

Not sure about the hot glue?
Shrink tubing is OK.
Tape as a marker is OK.

Disclaimer:
I am not an official source of answers, FIRST is. You might want to post these questions on thier questions board.

[sanddrag]

I've always thought FIRST should have better rules regarding tape. I liked the one year where the rule was it could not be used as a structural fastener. But I think this year's tape rules are just too limiting. I understand that FIRST wants to see professional grade robots but there are several good uses of tape that I would see as illegal based on this year's rule. Examples - protecting sharp edges of metal, making tires slippery, covering bearings so carpet fibers and debris do not fall inside.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Jeff Zampieron

Is it legal to use hot melt glue as an electrical insulator?
For that matter, is heat shrink tube legal. The flow chart is kinda
vague.

Jeff,
As an electrical guy, I would vote "no" to hot glue as an insulator. Although it seems to do a good job, it is inconsistent depending on the material and sizes involved. You have no idea, for instance, if the glue is well bonded to a surface or is merely stable because it has conformed to the outline of the part. The slightest bump will knock it off and then it's not insulating any longer.

[Random Dude]

In regards to tape as a label:

Q: <R14> says that Electrical tape is the only adhesive-backed tape allowed and only for wire. Does this mean labels can NOT be used to identify components?
A: Adhesive backed labels are not consided tape and good wiring practices would include clear labeling of all wire

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by Random Dude

In regards to tape as a label:

Q: <R14> says that Electrical tape is the only adhesive-backed tape allowed and only for wire. Does this mean labels can NOT be used to identify components?
A: Adhesive backed labels are not consided tape and good wiring practices would include clear labeling of all wire

[edit] Sorry, I misinterpreted that. If you were planning using the tape as a marker, like something to tell you how far an arm should go out on your robot, I would use paint or a paint marker to mark that[/edit]

As for hot glue ...

In the past, the only thing I've ever used hot glue for was to help how PWM cables in place (the darn things used to pull out so easily!!) I don't think it's illegal, but to be on the safe side I would use electrical tape. If you're worried about a connection pulling through, try getting some disconnects from Molex. They work really well, and I've hardly ever had them fail.

Good luck!

[Avarik]

Hot glue seems to work for us, but be carefull when you use it. We got a little bit inside our speed controllers PWM port, and it caused the cable not to connect completely, making it look like the speed controller wasn't working.

The troubles that caused me this year...