14-02-2005 13:23

SpaceOsc

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

ahhhs very nice looking pwm wiring, had a lil trouble myself. u have 6 victors near each other but each of them only have seemly less than inch of cooling clearence from the plastic thats not good. and your fuses seem kinda hard to get tooo. will your radio go on top tooo to make it completely self contained?

Very Impressive Looking!!

14-02-2005 13:36

Andy A.

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

The Victors will be more then adequately cooled, and will never get hot enough to be of any threat to the plastic. As I've said many times- our victors rarely get hot enough to warrant the fan in the first place. Any airflow at all is plenty to keep them cool.

The breaker block is in there pretty well. As long as you can see it though, the inspectors shouldn't have any trouble. Since the whole thing is on polycarb(?), I suspect that you can see all the breakers well enough.

Excellent wiring job, one of the nicest I've seen. I like the use of white wire as positive, red is soooo over done.

-Andy A.

14-02-2005 14:46

Ready_Mix

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

I wish I had that much space for my electrical board... I was alotted a 7.5" by 34" area. somehow I managed to make it work. I'll post some pics of it later.

14-02-2005 16:28

Erin Rapacki

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

Looks great! But, how much does it weigh?

14-02-2005 16:51

Emily Pease

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

Ten pounds, baby! Well, without the battery cables (which will be short anyway) and the backup battery and whatever else we'll have to add at the last minute. I'm surprised at how light it is. But the extruded aluminum is feather-light, we cut out chunks of lexan hidden beneath the RC and the breaker panel, and the wires are pretty short, so almost all of the weight is in the PWM's, the RC and the breaker panel.

14-02-2005 17:22

Greg Marra

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

Umm, is that tape?

Adhesive tape is illegal... I'd go with some more holes in the board and some zip ties.

14-02-2005 19:20

MikeDubreuil

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

Where do you see the adhesive tape?
As of right now we are well within our weight allowances. Therefore, we'd prefer to keep the structural integrity before we go blowing holes in it just so that we can say we took 6 ounces out of it. Just an engineering decision

14-02-2005 19:26

Greg Marra

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

I was just suggesting the holes as things to put zip ties through to replace what I thought was tape. It's probably just my unfamiliarity with this stuff, but it looked to me like tape was used to hold some wires to the bottom of the topmost layer of the tower. I have it pointed out in this image.

If that stuff isn't tape, what is it and what is it's purpose? I am just a rookie, after all.

14-02-2005 19:38

MikeDubreuil

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

Those are zip tie mounting bases. They are plastic with an adhesive backing and the top have 4 openings so you can secure 2 zip ties to them. They are avaliable at virtually any hardware store in the section with the zip ties. Here's a company that sells them online that shows a good picture.

EDIT: One also appears in Emily's picture in front of the SPIKE on the first tier.

14-02-2005 21:13

scifi3018

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

now i may only be a 4 year vetran, and i may only have 20/20 vision, but are those victor 883's on your board? i thought the rules specified only 884's

but i could just be seing things, that just jumped out when i saw them...

14-02-2005 21:35

Emily Pease

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

Actually, Mike, I think Greg is pointing to the plastic conduit. It's just a plastic sheath I put around the wires to group them together and make it easier to route them. There's another instance right in front of the breaker panel.

As we discussed here, those are not Victor 883's; those are 884's from a previous year, which are perfectly legal.

14-02-2005 23:01

scifi3018

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

sorry my bad, didnt know they came in multiple shades, gonna have to order some more to color code them with the bot

15-02-2005 01:32

5dimes

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

my electrical group had a similiar panel idea for our electrical box, but we were afraid we would have problems accessing everything. SO we thought of pullable panels, but then we'd have to deal with fuss over moving wires. from the looks of yours, everything seems dandy.

15-02-2005 08:25

DarkJedi613

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

How well protected will all that be once its on your robot?

Also it seems like some of those things are hard to remove...how easy do those speed controllers come out in the event of replacing?

15-02-2005 10:04

Emily Pease

Re: pic: 125's Electronics Tower of Terror!

There will be another 1/8" sheet of lexan on top of the RC, and part of the displayed side is partially protected by a part of the chassis. The other side will house the battery, which will offer a little more protection. I'm not worried about the sides, because there's a very small space through which a claw or something could poke, but if I change my mind, we can always cover the sides somehow.

The levels of the tower are adjustable, and each level is at least 3.5" apart, so it won't be incredibly difficult to replace breakers, Spikes or Victors. It certainly won't be easy or fast, but it will still be manageable.