2005 Electricals or 2006?

[Billfred]

Did your team use the 2006 electrical setup from the kit, or did you order the 2005 breaker panel from IFI?

Why?

[Manoel]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Did your team use the 2006 electrical setup from the kit, or did you order the 2005 breaker panel from IFI?

Why?

2005 - best US$ 84.95 spent this season, in my opinion.

[The Lucas]

2005 breaker panel for weight
Maxi blocks weigh a ton

[Sscamatt]

2005 set-up for sure. Makes everything neater, lighter, and more reliable in my opinion.

The weight of that maxi fuse block makes me cringe.

[UngsFree]

We also used the 2005 Setup, less weight and it makes everything much cleaner in my opinion.

[chrisinmd]

Looks like 5 for 5, we used last years panel too. It's so much easier to wire up, and you can hook 6 40amp loads to it, not to say anything of the weight of the gold maxi holder.

-Chris

[Richard Wallace]

2005, for weight and layout efficiency.

Also, as an inspector I prefer 2005 because it makes wiring easier to trace.

Can anyone offer some reason(s) for using the 2006 components, other than the extra cost of purchasing the 2005 breaker panel?

[The Lucas]

Originally Posted by Richard

Can anyone offer some reason(s) for using the 2006 components, other than the extra cost of purchasing the 2005 breaker panel?

Board space and perhaps a separate drive electrical panel. Thats all I can think of.

[Andrew Blair]

Make that 7 for 7. Makes it so much easier and neater. Separate blocks inhale audibly

[Al Skierkiewicz]

2005 because it is what I would have designed if I were doing it. The electrical runs are straightforward, minimum loss, with monitoring and good electrical input posts. The high current positions are near the input terminal. I also like the fact that ground returns are numbered to match the fuse (output) positions and there are more positions than the smaller blocks. The Maxi blocks require some fudging to get a reliable contact on #6 (folding stranded wire is not a good way to fill the hole) although the distro block is an easy way for inexperienced electrical teams to get a good return connection.

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by The Lucas

Board space and perhaps a separate drive electrical panel. Thats all I can think of.

Board space is why we used the 2006. It turns out we lost a mechanism and we had more space then we planned, but in any case, that huge breaker panel is really hard to work around.

[sanddrag]

Large one (2005). Space, 6 40 amp circuits, weight, ease of use.

[eugenebrooks]

We used the 2005 panel, although having that ground stud on
board to use as a lift point for the robot might have been nice...

Eugene

[lukevanoort]

2005. I fought tooth and claw for it since the beginning of the season. Other team members were against it saying something about filipping it around in competition being hard.(I never did figure out what they meant) It's a good thing I "convinced" them that it was the better choice, we had to eliminate 15lbs (stupid bathroom scales in our shop said we were 10 under... next time I see them I'm going to bust out the bloody sledgehammer) at competition as it was, I'd hate to have to remove another one or two.

[Eldarion]

2005, of course.