pic: Chassis Idea

[Al Skierkiewicz]

OK,
Electrical guy checking in...As Art and Jim have pointed out, you want to increase the size of your wire. Robot rules for many years have specified #6 minimum for all primary wiring. i.e. battery to main breaker to power distribution. Although robot rules allow for #12 for devices fed from 40 amp breakers we use and recommend #10. You can use the battery as counter weight so be ready to move it as needed. The power distro is better suited in the center of the robot. It is in this way that wire runs are minimized and balanced between the two sides of the robot. I can't tell you how many teams have come to me complaining they can't get the robot running straight when they have six feet of wire feeding the motors on one side and six inches of wire feeding the other. Although someone suggested to point the battery contacts down, I don't recommend this. Our high current applications will cause some venting from time to time and you (and the robot inspector) can't see if the terminals are getting into trouble when the battery is mounted that way. Remember that the sidecars do not pass a lot of current so they may be placed almost anywhere. I am suspecting a change in radios so don't dedicate yourself to that size package but do plan on getting it up out of the metallic clutter. In addition to the noise, there is significant reflections of RF down among the metallic parts.