Electrical CheckList

[Joe Ross]

The inspection checklist (available on the competition manual page is a good place to start.

The best way to make sure you don't have problems in the middle of the season is make sure everything is designed well at the beginning. The Electrical Design presentation from the 2005 championship workshops has many good tips (some parts are specific to IFI, but not much).

For most of the items you mentioned, there are a lot of things that can be done ahead of time to make those problems less likely to occur. A checklist is helpful, but thinking about how to avoid those problems is even better. I've given some examples below in bold. I also agree with Eric that many things are easier detected by testing then by inspection, so as long as there aren't safety issues, a pre-match check will be much faster for many things.

Originally Posted by McGurky

All wire gauges are correct
Does everyone working on the electronics know the correct wire gauge, or where to find them.
correct breakers are in place
easier to find by test
check all power wires for any frays
Check wires for frays before installing them. Route wire well, and make sure it's tied down, and it won't develop frays
check all wires going to and from the C-Rio for frays and shorts
see above
All debris is free of the electronics "area"
When possible, all debris generating activities should be done away from the robot. If not possible, the rest of the robot should be shielded as much as possible (we use butcher paper or newspaper) and the robot vacuumed afterwords. Most of the problems I've seen have either been a huge amount of debris (no precautions taken) or such a small piece that a casual inspection wouldn't have found it.
everything is grounded correctly
Training
Battery terminals are shielded (tape or heat shrink)
If battery terminals are installed well, it shouldn't be necessary to remove them or the insulation

Digital SideCard

All pwm are in the right orientation
easier to find by test
correct jumpers used
easier to find by test
all connectors are correctly placed and in the right orientation
since the power connectors are keyed, you don't have to worry about them after the first time the cable was made. Other connectors can be verified by test
no loose metal/debris around/in the Digital SideCar
see above