pic: 862 Radio Mount

[KenWittlief]

blue tape?! I dont think thats legal.

[Joe J.]

Its blue electrical tape. It passed inspection at Great Lakes without being questioned.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Philmont629

Its blue electrical tape. It passed inspection at Great Lakes without being questioned.

It could be argued that it should not have (it is not being used for insulation or labeling purposes, which would be the only allowed uses under Rule <R33>). Just in case, you might want to make sure that you are prepared if it is challenged by the inspectors at your next competition event (if you are going to any more).

-dave

[pathew100]

We will ask, but it is only wrapped around the radio and the serial connector to cover the exposed metal on the connector (which is at ground potential, nice place for static electrical potential to jump to.). The electrical tape is not used in any way to secure the radio to anything. It is being used to electrically insulate the connector.

We were having problems with random radio dropouts before shipping and noticed that it would happen either randomly during operation or when the robot was disabled and someone would walk up to the robot and touch the metal. This discharged a large static charge that was built up (large spinning plastic wheel, foam balls, foam rollers, pvc = nice Van DeGraf generator). When discharged into the person touching the metal robot frame it would also generate this radio dropout.

[Chriszuma]

It looks like you've gone to great lengths to prevent static there. As for rule-breaking, you could (probably successfully) argue that the tape is being used for electrical insulation, since it really is.

[Rombus]

Originally Posted by Chriszuma

It looks like you've gone to great lengths to prevent static there. As for rule-breaking, you could (probably successfully) argue that the tape is being used for electrical insulation, since it really is.

Another point is that the serial cable screws into the radio modem pretty securely, so there wouldn't be much of a reason to tape it up like that besides insulating.