Are breadboards on robots allowed during the competition or are you not allowed to use them?
It would have to be complaint with rules regarding custom circuits. I personally would not use a breadboard on my robot because I could see wires coming out really easily.
Do you really knead one?
I knew someone would rise to the occasion and make a Dad Joke
They should be fine to use per the rules (as long as you are abiding by all other custom circuit rules), but you are very likely to have problems with components falling out.
You may consider one of these: https://www.adafruit.com/product/571?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsvTxBRDkARIsAH4W_j-r6MbP2BsyJR28uhA7crh-vIlt1LfmFuit1xCwO1Rj4gm1v4_qNYQaArrTEALw_wcB
That would make a more reliable setup, and would keep the same wiring setup you already have on your breadboard.
I have personally destroyed a raspberry pi with a breadboard when one cable fell out and bridged a circuit while it was on. I would be worried about that happening during a match. Also, if you spend over a certain amount (I think it is 100 dollars), Adafruit throws in one of the perma proto boards for free. In addition, you may want to take a look at the Rev More board. It plugs right into the mxp port on the Rio.
While bread boards are legal it is quite possible that thing might fall out or get pushed out of place. It would be a better idea to put it on some form of perf board.
The Michael Reeves/DIwhy solution is to just hotglue the wires into the breadboard
If you’re 100% certain of your circuit, once you have finished breadboarding, you can always eproxy the entire breadboard along with all the wiring. Just leave our terminals/connectors for any in-out use.
the Adafruit board is a good idea, just make sure that you solder down all the points and then eproxy the whole thing.
A Dad joke complementing a Dad joke? This thread has gone a rye.
We used one in 2018 for our Bling, a non mission critical application. That is as far as I would go with a breadboard on a robot.
I used one in 2017 with no problems. We ended up taping (not a good solution if you want to reclaim the parts!) the components down to the board.
I also support the use of a solderable proto/perf board. Even if components don’t fall out, solderless breadboard connections are not very vibration tolerant.
It can’t beat the price of the Adafruit 3-pack that @Lexeo mentioned, but our Proto Board is also compatible with the MXP on the roboRIO. It has less features than our More Board that @Mr.R_2 mentioned, but it is more cost effective if you only need a prototype area.
Don’t loaf around. Use solder.
yes, but this sounds like the type of idea i’d have
@bad_ideas_only,
Me too. While we are on the subject, we used solid core wire to a more board last year in a pinch, and as suspected, the board shorted out and prevented the rio from working. It was all our (my?) bad. All it took was to pop the board out and redo the cabling correctly, but we were at a loss for a bit.
The moral of the story? Use stranded wire on your circuits, and do not short out the rio.
Alright, thanks! I think we will use a breadboard with electrical tape, but we already ordered more LEDs.
Why stranded
Depending on the component layout, a sheet of static resistant closed cell foam taped over the board might be adequate. Easier to remove and replace than tape or hot glue directly on components.
Not a recipe for reliability though.
Solid core wire is inflexible and does not take solder very well compared to stranded (especially the silicone pre-tinned cable). While almost good enough, it was only good enough for our first event and the first couple matches of our second. At that point, one of the cables broke due to all the vibration, and I think that year had us jumping off a platform at the start of the match (think of bending bridges as opposed to static), when it broke, it immediately shorted out, and since it was plugged into the MXP port, so did the Rio. It boot looped repeatedly until we figured it out. It was a stressful time. The staff at Hartford helped us troubleshoot everything and we finally figured it out.
Needless to say, good enough was just that… until it wasn’t.
@MrRoboSteve, that is a cool idea.