Lunacy Wheels Static Electricity

[nilesenator]

Hello Everybody, My Team hooked up a control system today on the kit base with the new plastic Lunacy wheels, and we noticed that if you drive the wheels on carpet and let them spin in place, the robot becomes a van de graff generator. If you touch it it will shock you! Several people tried to move the robot only to be shocked. I wonder if that will be an issue on the competition floor, or from the carpet on the field?

-Niles David
Team 294

[computerboi1503]

I noticed this myself too, during our testing.... the first thing that came to mind was:

Static Electricity+Grounded Enclosures= Lighter Wallets.

[DCA Fan]

*imagines arcs flying during competition*

Cooool.....

[dmcguire3006]

Good idea to bring a ground strap when exiting the crater, huh? Discharge the robot from the chassis rather than through the cRIO!

This is great info, thanks!

[cbudrecki]

I know it's a long shot, but would this pose a threat to our pilots if a robot were to arc to the arena?

[nilesenator]

I know it's a long shot, but would this pose a threat to our pilots if a robot were to arc to the arena?

*****
Attention!

People with pacemakers or a heart condition must stay at least 10 feet away at all times.
*****

I don't think it will actually pose a risk, but I am not entirely sure. :-)

[computerboi1503]

The amount of potential energy (static electricity) stored in your robot's chassis will vary, but I do not believe that during a match of Lunacy you will generate any sort of harmful charges in your robot... this does mean that Dave was right when he said mounting your cRIO on your chassis is bad. So in other words...

Listen to Dave, don't mount the cRIO without proper insulation

[BigWhiteYeti]

If all six robots were in contact at the end of the match, you could make a very BIG van der graf generator, one that might really pose a problem.

[dbs12693x]

This may pose a problem, if the polymer in the floor and wheels do, in fact, cause a build up of static electricity. I can see robots and, especially, trailers falling to that problem a lot from sliding.

[rsisk]

I have seen the comment about not mounting the cRIO or Camera directly to the chasis, or make sure it is isolated, and other such comments.

Could someone give a brief explanation about how to isolate these devices?

Does isolation mean to have some sort of insulating material between the device and the chasis suffice? For example, mount the cRIO on plexiglass, or rubber, or wood rather than directly to the chasis.

[Booksy]

I guess <R41> is a really good idea this year then. Especially that box about the cRio and camera.

[Russ Beavis]

rsisk,
Simply mounting the components to a plastic or wood board is sufficient (as long as the fasteners don't also contact your robot's chassis). The goal is to keep any single wiring fault from allowing current transfer through non-wiring metal within your robot.

If your chassis is isolated and then 1 wiring fault occurs, there won't be any problems. For example, let's start with a camera chassis that is mistakenly connected to the robot chassis. If a 12V line then contacts the chassis with a grounded camera chassis, let the fun (aka welding) begin...

Russ

[EricVanWyk]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Does isolation mean to have some sort of insulating material between the device and the chasis suffice? For example, mount the cRIO on plexiglass, or rubber, or wood rather than directly to the chasis.

Yep. Also, don't ruin the isolation with metal mounting hardware. Use a multimeter when you are done to verify.

I prefer lexan or wood, I'm sure other teams have other methods.

[venividivici]

So essentially what would be ideal, is to mount any electronics/controllers on plexiglass, and use separate bolts to mount it onto the chassis, thus keeping a barrier from the static.

I can see a lot of robots going down this year because of short circuiting, or zapping few controllers.

[Gdeaver]

When driving last years robot with KOP wheels on the waxed hall way floor the static build up was tremendous. The discharge into a finger was very painful. We may make the worse behaved team member be the robot retriever.