Heat.

[Swens]

I'm going through the forums and seeing a lot of tunneler bots. By having a tunneler the chances are pretty good that your electronics and cRio are going to be very tightly packed. My question is if anyone has had concerns or issues with overheating on the robot in the past. I'm just asking to get a feel for how much heat these bots can generate. I'm apart of a teem for the first year this year and would appreciate and feedback.

[keehun]

I'm not sure if teams need to be too worried about electronics overheating.

For me, I'm more worried about our motors pulling too much and tripping the breaker, and heating up in the process of it.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Robert,
There are a few areas where heat can be a problem. The circuit breakers are designed with bimetallic parts that when heated deform to open the circuit breaker. The FP and window motors also have thermal breakers built into their case to prevent damage to the motor. There is likely more of an issue with the devices running at elevated temperatures than anything else. Should a team design cause high currents in the motors, then the Jaguars/Victors will experience elevated temperatures, but they have fans attached. Keeping those fans unobstructed is essential. Finally, high currents, the type often encountered with tank turns on carpet without omni wheels, result in breakers tripping. The more often the trip the higher the temperature. It is not uncommon for breakers that trip under these conditions, to do so rapidly. This results in a very hot breaker. Please be careful when working around the PD right after a match.

The Crio and side cars are pretty robust so I don't think that will be an issue.

[Swens]

Thanks for the advice.

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by Swens

I'm going through the forums and seeing a lot of tunneler bots. By having a tunneler the chances are pretty good that your electronics and cRio are going to be very tightly packed. My question is if anyone has had concerns or issues with overheating on the robot in the past. I'm just asking to get a feel for how much heat these bots can generate. I'm apart of a teem for the first year this year and would appreciate and feedback.

We'll in my 15 years of FIRST, I have seen about on average 2 bots a year catch on fire due to electrical issues. In the past we have had CIMs get hot and we figured a way to cool them down, we found a coolant spray at RadioShack. Usually it's not that problematic. You're given enough time to "cool down" in between matches and such. If you have any problems let us know.

Cass

[Smoores]

just as long as you keep it FAR away from the compressor it seems fine. (or is it abnormal that our compressor will burn things to the touch?)

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Steven,
We are anticipating that teams with a lot of pneumatics will be running the compressor for long periods of time. Compressing air does cause heat. The head of the compressor will become hot to the touch during a match. Be careful!

[Jon Stratis]

While we plan on going over the bump and avoidig the tunnel, almost all of our robot is under 17.5 inches. Yes, everything is really packed in there. When we make the hood for the top of the robot, we'll have holes drilled to line up with the victor and spike fans to help keep them cool. If that's not enough (and we're almost sure it will be with our design), we can always add some of the muffin fans from the KOP to help out as well.