Where did all the magic smoke go?

[Binome]

Our IR board decided to release its magic smoke, but I packed it back in and it started working

Other than that, our bot's stayed smoke free

[boygenius]

the most smoke we let out this year is from our backup battery charger circuit we built we had a solder bridge that fried our zener doide.

[Martino]

our first year(2006) we didn't have any... but the last 2 years we have let out the magic smoke last year it was just a PWM cable and this year it was a victor i wasn't there when they did it... but i here it was bad!!!

[Andy L]

we fried an FP motor on our elevator because someone doesn't understand "no don't use past years motors and transmissions"

[tacopaco789]

We had our Banebot motor smoke 3 or 4 time when opperating our wrist on the arm. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=64571

Kyle Jordan
624 Cryptonite Robotics

[Graham Donaldson]

While I wasn't there at the time (and I'm not sure of the exact story), I know that we released the magic smoke this year. We were hooking up a battery to a board (pneumatics test board, I believe) and the member who was plugging the alligator clips had a bunch of cables in his hand...suffice it to say a black cable got put on one terminal, the end of a different cable got attached to the board, and then the first cable was attached to the other terminal...and this was one of the big batteries = lots of smoke and sparks= fused and completely useless wires. thankfully it was an old battery, and no one got hurt.

[RyanN]

No magic smoke from Fusion this year. We did have a Victor mysteriously decide to stop receiving signals from the RC and our IR board crashed, but that's it.

[ChrisMcK2186]

we avoided the FP motors purely b/c we are highly allergic to anything related to magic: unicorns, pixies, smoke. So far, so good.

We did have some close brushes with potentially magical smoke when some freshman tried wiring the board up backwards to see what would happen. He now asks in triplicate before touching things now...


Chris McKenzie
2186

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by ChrisMcK2186

we avoided the FP motors purely b/c we are highly allergic to anything related to magic: unicorns, pixies, smoke. So far, so good.

We did have some close brushes with potentially magical smoke when some freshman tried wiring the board up backwards to see what would happen. He now asks in triplicate before touching things now...


Chris McKenzie
2186

We're using a FP motor this year, but we have it staying cool under working conditions using magic... A fan and brake does wonders.

[ReaperGoat]

yeah, 1735 has been very lucky the three years we've been around...haven't fried a single thing (so far)

[David Brinza]

Release of magic smoke is a preventable robot affliction. It's caused most frequently by wiring error, occasionally by inadvertent shorts (from metal shavings, worn insulation, bent connector pins), and rarely by an internal device failure. There are a lot of teams that go for years without frying electrical components.

It starts with a good layout and neat wiring. Carefully crimped wires with labels at each end are routed point-to-point correctly. Wires should be placed without stress from tight bends and avoiding sharp edges. Not only does this look good but will be very reliable and easy to inspect/troubleshoot.

The metal shavings problem can be avoided by covering the electrical board whenever mechanical work (especially cutting/drilling) is being done on the robot. Mechanical work should only be done with the main breaker open.

Before plugging the main battery for the first time, inspect the following:

Every connection against wiring diagram (correct gauge, correct polarity, connector integrity, no pinched wires)
Isolation of chassis from main battery power and ground terminals (at least 100KOhm)
Main breaker is open (OFF)
OI in disabled state

Connect battery and close main breaker.

Verify indicator lights on RC and Victors.
If there's a problem with any of the indicators, turn off the power and inspect the wiring again for the affected components.

The consequences of releasing magic smoke can be painful. A "lesson learned" in competition can wreck your whole day. (I know this from the 2006 GTR semi-finals - ouch!)

Taking the time to protect and inspect your electrical board before flipping the power switch is worthwhile.

BTW, the inspection process can be used to familiarize newer team members with the FIRST electrical subsystem - a good learning experience.

[Whisper]

Team 1091 has fried multiple window motors for three years now. We are not lucky at all. For at least two years in a row now, some of our motors have been defective or put together wrong. FOr example, last year we got locktite into one of our drive motors, and this year the gearbox on the drive motor was out of alignment. We also ended up burning out a window motor when we tried to use it as a vacuum for sucking up the trackball. Apparently a little fan on the end of it creates a very large amount of resistance. we also got epoxy into another vacuum mount and the fan blade got stuck on it and burned out the second motor as well.
Also the power cables for the fan on one of our victors came loose, if a mentor hadn't spotted it, we would have ended up frying it. Which is bad.
SO i have no idea what yall are talking bout when you say theres no more magic smoke

[RoXmySoX]

Thank bob we didnt let the magic smoke out. (knock on wood)

[seg9585]

We lost 2 speed controllers due to a faulty CIM motor (shorting). When after the 2nd one blew we replaced the motor and all was well.

[robbrad]

I blew one encoder and would have blown the Robot Controller if I had put the yellow jumpers in the distrobution block earlier than I had.