removeable electronics

[youngWilliam14]

i was wondering, how many people have like a box that holds the electronic system that you could easily take in and out of your robot? one of my teammates said that it's been talked about before, but no one has really done it. what does everyone else think about this?

[dlavery]

Check out this thread.

-dave

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Over the years I have inspected several robots with modular electronic boxes. They were some of the prettiest electricals I have seen. It does make the electricals gain some wire length. So that everything becomes so compact, all wiring was brought out to multiple contact connectors on one side of the box. Reminds me of an avionics unit on an aircraft. The teams usually built two of them since changing out a single defective component would take far too long.

[youngWilliam14]

so what kind of connectors does everyone use for the wires?

[tdlrali]

most people use the powerpoles

http://www.wimo.de/bilder/powerpoles-klein.jpg

[Wayne Doenges]

most people use the powerpoles

They are also called 'Sermo' connectors. They come in all sizes. The really neat thing about them is that they interlock in different ways so you can make it impossible to plug one connector into another.
They also come in different colors.
You can get the red and black ones at any good R/C car hobby shop.

[savage]

1368 made one in 2005, when it was all done it weighed a total oh 10 pounds

[youngWilliam14]

well, the one i've been working on weighs about 7.5 lb., but i need to cut that down for the weight restrictions

[efoote868]

868 has done this for the past 2 years, and will be doing it again this year. Although they aren't as clean as 116's, they still did their job. The one we did in 2005 looks like a nightmare, all the wires are sandwiched in between 2 sheets of lexan. We're still learning though...

[Mister_Juggles]

422 has had a modular electronics board the past few years. I don't know the technical name for it, but we use what we call "The Big Plug." It's just what it sounds like, a big plug that everything is connected to. We just flip the switch and disconnect it and we can pull the board out of the bot. Sorry I don't know exactly what it's called, I've never been much of an electronics person.