Control System Mounts?

[archiver]

Posted by Ken Leung at 1/24/2001 12:22 AM EST


Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.


In Reply to: Control System Mounts?
Posted by Anton Abaya on 1/23/2001 11:15 PM EST:



The most important about mounting the whole control system is to make sure you don't short out the system just because you mounted it on a piece of metal. I've seen teams done that, and the wires are almost touching the metal piece. It is a serious safety issue. There might even be a change to blow up the battery...

Anyways, about mounting the control system, you want to use a non-conductible material, but also something you can easily work with. Unless you planned the whole control system and electronics out, you should leave yourself space to mount more things (like speed controllers) and you want to be able to easily drill holes for mounting. At the end, once you have your electronics figured out, draw out the plan and make/choose a permanent mounting plate/box. Keep in mind that you should leave some space between components so it won’t be all bunched up, have short and straight connection so it won’t look confusing as well as reducing the risk of bare wires accidentally connecting each other, and you want to label probably all the wire so everyone can tell which wire go to which connection. And finally, the plate/box you choose should have enough strength to hold the system together, as well as protecting it from unnecessary risk from outside world. One last thing to remember about is to make sure wires/cables are cleared away from moving components… accidents like wires caught in between chain and sprocket were ripped off the connection tab.

Be careful and afraid…