[Rookie] How to set up electrical the best way?

[mikets]

Originally Posted by mikets

I am making a 12-port CAN backbone tonight. I will take some pictures to post.

Here are the pictures of the 12-port CAN hub (part 1 of 2).

[mikets]

Part 2 of 2.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Thanks for the pictures, that doesn't look to complicated. Are any of the parts special or just normal RJ11 stuff?

[mikets]

Those are just normal RJ-11 stuff I got from Home Depot.

[bmlarson12]

One thing I heard of to keep things organized is to mount everything on pegboard. I am going to try that this year.

Another thing to keep cables organized is to use a strip of electrical tape every six inches to hold each pair of wires together. For example, it makes sure that you know the positive and negative wires are going to a specific motor.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by bmlarson12

One thing I heard of to keep things organized is to mount everything on pegboard. I am going to try that this year.

Perf stock aluminum is easier to use and can be cut with a pair of shears.

[chi-town-biker]

Originally Posted by bmlarson12

One thing I heard of to keep things organized is to mount everything on pegboard. I am going to try that this year.

Andy Mark perforated polycarbonate board is great. The holes line up with most FRC parts. www.andymark.com/product-p/am-0836.htm

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Perf stock aluminum is easier to use and can be cut with a pair of shears.

But it's not electrically isolated like a peg board would be

[kstl99]

We have had good luck with 1/4" Lexan. Easy to drill and tap and pretty strong.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

But it's not electrically isolated like a peg board would be

Everything has a drawback. We have used perf for as far back as I can remember.

[Ernst]

Garolite can be great for mounting electronics. It's very resistant to heat, chemicals, and electricity. It's also very strong.

It has a lot of the properties of carbon fiber, but is much cheaper.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mike,
I like that. If we ever go to a can bus can I copy it?

[mikets]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Mike,
I like that. If we ever go to a can bus can I copy it?

Are you referring to my CAN bus hub? If so, sure. You are welcome to it. There are too many discussions in this thread I am very new to CAN bus. So the design is not proven. Our test bot runs fine with the 4-port hub. My limited knowledge on transmission line tells me it shouldn't have any issues with wave reflection.

[otherguy]

Originally Posted by mikets

Here is our software development bot. It is in a smaller footprint than the competition robot so it is less intimating when testing software. We are trying Jaguars for the first time and we made a backbone CAN bus (not daisy chain so it won't have the problem of one Jag dies, all down stream jags will fail) using RJ-12 connectors. The bus is pretty much two twisted-pair wires punchdown to 4 RJ-12 connectors. Also notice the Anderson connectors for motor power and RJ-11 connectors for the encoders. So unplugging all motor power and encoder cables will allow us to separate the electronics from the frame cleanly.

Just so you know... If a jaguar in a daisy chain fails, down stream jags are NOT affected. The contacts on the PCB are wired through (in to out) without going through active components.

The only exception to the rule is in the case where you are using the Jaguar as an RS232 to CAN bridge... Since that jaguar is actively translating commands, if it fails, the link fails. But again, any other Jag in the chain can lose power and everything will keep operating as it should.

Test it out for yourself - we did.

[slijin]

Originally Posted by otherguy

Just so you know... If a jaguar in a daisy chain fails, down stream jags are NOT affected. The contacts on the PCB are wired through (in to out) without going through active components.

The only exception to the rule is in the case where you are using the Jaguar as an RS232 to CAN bridge... Since that jaguar is actively translating commands, if it fails, the link fails. But again, any other Jag in the chain can lose power and everything will keep operating as it should.

Test it out for yourself - we did.

Just out of curiosity, how exactly did you conduct this test?

When experimenting with CAN last year, we ran into a Jaguar that terminated the network when the chain reached it (but we've had far more than our share of bizarre Jaguar phenomena).