Removable Electronics

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by copperhead47

haveyou experimented with other clear materials other than polycarb? bnecause to my knowledge, poly carb used in liberal amounts is some what heavy although i could be wrong

The 2007 box weighed about 10 lb.s, which isn't terribly bad compared to many other control board set-ups I have seen. Due to the fact that you have to see the lights on the victors, spikes, and RC, we needed a clear substance to make the control box out of, which is why we chose polycarb.

[tseres]

thats pretty cool....i'll have to remember that for next year.

*edit*
just curious (this should probably be in programming, but, meh) how do you get power to the large fan? does it just hook up to a PWM output on the RC? or do you have to splice it and hook it up to the battery?

[Qbranch]

For a lightweight alternative to heavy polycarbonate, you can always take thin lexan (1/16 - 1/8" depending on #lbs you want to support) and bend it in a pressbrake, no heating necessary if you go slow, just make sure you leave the backing on the lexan till your done bending so it remains optically pure.

If you place your bends right, we were able to mount 2nd level of our control system (4 victors, 4 solenoids, robot controller, three air tanks, allen bradly blinker assembly, 4 spikes) on a single piece of 1/16" lexan. Don't know if the brand matters but we used Markolon.

Any questions, just give me a holler.

-q

[AJ R]

Originally Posted by tseres

just curious (this should probably be in programming, but, meh) how do you get power to the large fan? does it just hook up to a PWM output on the RC? or do you have to splice it and hook it up to the battery?

Just connect it to a 20 amp breaker. I don't think a spike is necessary. And besides, the fans on the victors are wired in this way.

[tseres]

sorry...i worded my qustion wrong....i didnt mean the vidcot muffin fans...i meant the big fan....180? or something like that. the one that made the "wind tunnel" effect..

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by tseres

sorry...i worded my qustion wrong....i didnt mean the vidcot muffin fans...i meant the big fan....180? or something like that. the one that made the "wind tunnel" effect..

The answer is still the same, unless you want to turn it on/off. If you did, you could wire it to a spike.

[tseres]

ok....thanks...i kinda wanna do that kind of idea for the electronics box next year. i like how it looks and how it works. it would have solved a lot of problems this year of, like, 6 ppl working on the robot at a time..

[whytheheckme]

This latest picture, posted by Pavan (thx much), shows off the globbable quick disconnect connectors quite well:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/28626

You can see that they have them lumped together into groups of fours....

Jacob

[tseres]

Originally Posted by whytheheckme

This latest picture, posted by Pavan (thx much), shows off the globbable quick disconnect connectors quite well:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/28626

You can see that they have them lumped together into groups of fours....

Jacob

WOW....just.....wow....man, i gotta do that next year.. do you know if they had any cooling problems with everything that close together? and do the wires going to the victors connected with o-connectors? or do they have, like, heat-shrink or something similar on them?

[jsmith234]

Where are those quick disconnect connectors available to purchase?...I would love to add those to our board design this next season.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by jsmith234

Where are those quick disconnect connectors available to purchase?...I would love to add those to our board design this next season.

As mentioned earlier, they are Anderson Power Pole connectors. One vendor is Powerwerx (http://www.powerwerx.com/Default.asp).

[Ricki E.]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

116 has used our modular, removable "control box" on 4 different bots at 11 total competitions (developed summer 2004), with only one issue (during a practice match in Peachtree 2006, and it was an issue common to any electrical system). I don't think that 116 will be switching away from the design anytime soon. 2005 Control Box thread
2007 version (before wire runs were cleaned)

How much does that approximately weight?

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The 2007 box weighed about 10 lbs

Originally Posted by robot chick

How much does that approximately weight?

Don

[eeeeweeezeee]

My team has done the polycarbonate enclosure thing before. that pic from 116 looks a lot like the "brain box" my ream worked on about the same time, but we never adopted the design. ours was almost the exact same but with 2 120mm fans and it was translucent blue plastic. ours didn't work out in the end though, when we forgot to take into account wiring. that ever so important flexible copper that links it all together is just a little more bulky than most people realize, and we never did try making a new box with an additional 1" on all directions.

we currently Velcro the parts to sheet metal attached to the frame covered with a Lexan plate that removes with several screws, and also has some hinged doors for frequently accessed parts like the programming port. this plastic sheet that covers the robot frame is also a convenient place for sponsor stickers to cover where there isn't anything interesting to look at through the clear plastic.