Brand New Electrical People Make this

[Sperkowsky]

Hello I am from 2869,

Basically last year our electrical guy graduated and when on to M.I.T. We were all very happy for him but it meant we had only one electrical person. The issue is she does not have much free time and only came once maybe twice a week for a few hours. SO me and My friend who's dad is an electrician decided to learn. I had no experience and he had a little but no FRC experience. Basically we learned everything from online in one day. Neither of our mentors know electrical so we were really on our own. So I proudly present what we did. We still have to shorten the Network cable and connect the light and two cameras but that's for final robot assembly. All constructive criticism will be taken but I am still really proud.
http://postimg.org/image/u8divpdq7/ (Not Sure If the Picture Posting Worked)

[Ben Wolsieffer]

It looks nice: its neater than ours and I've been doing ours for three years. The one comment I have is that you need to make sure that your main breaker is easily accessible when you mount your board on the robot.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by lopsided98

It looks nice: its neater than ours and I've been doing ours for three years. The one comment I have is that you need to make sure that your main breaker is easily accessible when you mount your board on the robot.

Do you think having it right there is ok? The electrical is all completely exposed on the back of the robot countering some of the weight of the fork.

[Ben Wolsieffer]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Do you think having it right there is ok? The electrical is all completely exposed on the back of the robot countering some of the weight of the fork.

Yeah, its fine as long as the board is easily accessible.

[Thromgord]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Do you think having it right there is ok? The electrical is all completely exposed on the back of the robot countering some of the weight of the fork.

Your board may need a bit of shielding from above and from the sides (wouldn't want an errant tote or bin falling on this fine piece of work). I think that the main breaker is in a reasonably good location, it shouldn't be too hard to turn the robot off if it starts driving off as fast as it can possibly go ("I don't like your team anymore, and I'm moving to Team 254... and there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!" It's happened before.) If this happens again and again, I would recommend placing the robot in a cage. A Faraday cage would work fine for this.

All joking aside, excellent electrical board! Nice job. I hope you feel very proud.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Thromgord

Your board may need a bit of shielding from above and from the sides (wouldn't want an errant tote or bin falling on this fine piece of work). I think that the main breaker is in a reasonably good location, it shouldn't be too hard to turn the robot off if it starts driving off as fast as it can possibly go ("I don't like your team anymore, and I'm moving to Team 254... and there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME!" It's happened before.) If this happens again and again, I would recommend placing the robot in a cage. A Faraday cage would work fine for this.

All joking aside, excellent electrical board! Nice job. I hope you feel very proud.

I think 254 would be too embarrassed to take in our robot even as their 2,000th foster bot. However we are still quite proud of it....Now lets hope we finish it in time. Again all joking aside Ill bend a piece of lexan in the same shape tomorrow and put in over everything. Then Ill hinge it so its still easy to access. I think that will add enough protection while still not being too intrusive. Thanks for the input.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I think 254 would be too embarrassed to take in our robot even as their 2,000th foster bot. However we are still quite proud of it....Now lets hope we finish it in time. Again all joking aside Ill bend a piece of lexan in the same shape tomorrow and put in over everything. Then Ill hinge it so its still easy to access. I think that will add enough protection while still not being too intrusive. Thanks for the input.

I believe your main breaker needs to be accessible without having to remove or open any hinged cover. Its not clear if this is what you meant or not. You can put a hole in the Lexan cover that will allow a hand/finger to get in to push the main breaker button. (just make sure the hole is small enough to not a allow a tote or bin through it :-) )

[MrRoboSteve]

A couple notes I see:

Radio: good location. Can't quite tell from photo whether the other Ethernet ports on the radio are accessible -- you should set it up so that you can tether your driver station to the radio, not to the roboRIO. It's cheaper/easier to replace the radio when someone trips over your tether.

Use electrical tape to fasten the barrel connector into the radio. They occasionally come out.

Most teams use Velcro to attach the radio to the board -- easier to remove the radio and take it to the programming station at competitions. We mount ours with the white side to the robot. Use a sharpie and write your team number and 2015 on the radio and your roboRIO. Do not cover up the label on the radio that indicates the model and version number -- needs to be visible for inspection purposes.

If you make a short cat5/6 cable, be sure you're using stranded and not solid wire (more reliable). Personally I'd buy one rather than making it.

You'll want your vertical board fairly rigid if you're going to have the navX installed in that location.

Be sure you have good tie down locations for the load side wiring on your speed controllers -- not a lot of room in the photo you're showing. You'll want to both make those wires into bundles and have them tied down within a couple inches of the controller -- the screw terminals tend to work themselves loose.

[Alan Anderson]

The NavX doesn't want to be in that orientation. It's programmed to assume it's mounted flat.

[Cecil]

Looks good!

I have a few suggestions. Please make sure you insulate the copper terminals coming from the main breaker. You don't want an errant falling tool to short out your nice control board!

Also, make sure the two fuses for your RoboRIO and VRM are seated fully (you shouldn't be able to see any metal on them. You don't want them bouncing out and shutting down your robot in the middle of the match.

Also, forgive me for not being able to see (the picture is just a bit too small to tell) but where is your radio plugged into? I see wires coming out of the 5v 2a port of the voltage regulator module, but they don't seem to match the colors on the radio plug. If it's crimped somewhere in between, ignore this one and carry on!

Other than that, it looks good!

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by Cecil

Looks good!

I have a few suggestions. Please make sure you insulate the copper terminals coming from the main breaker. You don't want an errant falling tool to short out your nice control board!

Also, make sure the two fuses for your RoboRIO and VRM are seated fully (you shouldn't be able to see any metal on them. You don't want them bouncing out and shutting down your robot in the middle of the match.

Also, forgive me for not being able to see (the picture is just a bit too small to tell) but where is your radio plugged into? I see wires coming out of the 5v 2a port of the voltage regulator module, but they don't seem to match the colors on the radio plug. If it's crimped somewhere in between, ignore this one and carry on!

Other than that, it looks good!

Thanks for the suggestions I am really glad to hear some! Ok so as for the fuses your completely right I didnt even notice that. And as for the radio power it is heatshrinked to a new cable. As for the battery terminals how should we insulate it(Sorry for being a noob) but I have no Idea what works. Thanks again!

[Ben Wolsieffer]

Another thing I noticed, is that you might want to change out the connectors on the breaker to crimp ones. The ones you are using are legal, but they have a tendency to vibrate loose over time.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by lopsided98

Another thing I noticed, is that you might want to change out the connectors on the breaker to crimp ones. The ones you are using are legal, but they have a tendency to vibrate loose over time.

Ill check to see on monday if we have any big enough.

[Ben Wolsieffer]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Ill check to see on monday if we have any big enough.

I think we received some in the KOP.

[Cecil]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

Thanks for the suggestions I am really glad to hear some! Ok so as for the fuses your completely right I didnt even notice that. And as for the radio power it is heatshrinked to a new cable. As for the battery terminals how should we insulate it(Sorry for being a noob) but I have no Idea what works. Thanks again!

Heat shrink or electrical tape are the easiest ways to insulate them. I think the heat shrink that came in the kit is too small to go over those terminals, but there was plenty of electrical tape supplied.

Originally Posted by lopsided98

Another thing I noticed, is that you might want to change out the connectors on the breaker to crimp ones. The ones you are using are legal, but they have a tendency to vibrate loose over time.

I also do agree with this to some extent. They can work loose over time, so if you stick with them, make absolutely sure they are as tight as you can get. If you decide to switch to the crimp ones that came in the kit, they have to be crimped right or they can fall off. We use this crimper and haven't had a problem. We crimp in two places and don't worry about it. If you don't have a crimper that will work on that size terminal, I have heard of teams using a vise to crush them down. Whatever you do, do a pull test on them to make sure they are absolutely secure and won't fall apart during the match.