Broken Classmate, How to replace?

[Brandon_L]

At the 2010 NJ regional we made it into the eliminations and while testing our bot to see if it could climb and support another robot under us, the tether got yanked out of the port on the classmate and broke the plastic thing that clicks when you plug it in. The port still works, but has to be held in or not moved at all or we loose connection with the robot. Were going to the Dule on the Delaware this weekend and were wondering if there are any quick fixes (we made it through the eliminations and monty madness fine without fixing it, I just kinda held it in the entire time and taped it) but how do we get it fixed?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

The port still works, but has to be held in or not moved at all or we loose connection with the robot... we're wondering if there are any quick fixes (we made it through the eliminations and monty madness fine without fixing it, I just kinda held it in the entire time and taped it) but how do we get it fixed?

Many teams have had this problem.

make (or buy) a short cable (maybe 4 inches) with male connector on one end and female on the other. Epoxy the male connector into the Classmate. (Obviously, be careful not to coat the electrical contacts with epoxy)

[BrendanB]

If you can't fix the classmate for DOTD, use another small laptop. At WPI this year our team competed with two robots and used a Dell as our second OI.

[Mark McLeod]

We used a pigtail like Ether suggested, but just wired it tightly in to the vent holes on the bottom of the Classmate underneath the Ethernet port.

[jtus]

You can use a usb ether net adapter. And then use a pigtail so that doesn't get broken.

[Brandon_L]

Explain what a pigtail is...?

[Fletch1373]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

Explain what a pigtail is...?

The "pigtail" they are referring to is the short Ethernet extension cable mentioned in a previous post.

[Mark McLeod]

Here's an example