I’m a part of a rookie team I’m curious what kind of things your team use for cable management. I know some teams use zip ties do any of you use alternatives like velcro zip ties or any 3d printed solution.
First thing. Label wires at both ends before things are connected the first time. Masking tap or label maker does not matter.
Try to use bonded wire (two wires where the insulation is attached). Of course use the wire sizes (or larger) as necessary according to the game manual.
Try to avoid having too much extra at connections, a little extra is ok, but clean wiring doesn’t have “service loops”.
Try to imagine how wires will get to where they need to go and how hard it will be to access them once there is a bunch of stuff on top. Bonus points if you leave enough space in there to get in with a small vacuum to clean out the belly pan.
When all done, with the bot on blocks, go around jiggling connections and whatnot, see if you can get errors to pop up. Better to find these sooner rather than later. Zip tie anything that is loose. Make sure thing that are next to things that move/could wear the wire are REALLY held in place (no chance for a wire to get into a sprocket or gear)
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We use Alex Tech split loom for wire runs. We use zip ties to secure the wire run to the bot. We will 3d print zip tie anchor points, look closely at the “2056 CAD Release”, the have 3d printed parts we’ll used too, for strain relief. We used to use sticky foam zip tie anchor points, but we’ve had issues with them sticking to powder coating. This year we’ll bolt the 3d printed anchor points where we need them.
Also, I just posted a PCH Pit live stream thread covering this topic. Matt from 1678 is our guest and we will have a discussion of how to wire a bot. We’ve had issues at the end of the season. Mostly hunting control system issues that eventually creep up after a few comps being driven hard.
Also. What 2910’s video. They go into details, often times presentations give you ‘what’ to do. 2910’s video goes into the details on ‘how’ to do it.
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For most wiring, yes, small zip ties work great and are super cheap, so keep plenty on hand for your electrical team. (You’ll want longer and stronger ones for other things, including for managing large wire bundles at times.)
Tying things down is important. For that we use “sticky pads” (a/k/a “self adhesive cable tie mounts”). Look for small ones so they can go on the edge of a 1" aluminum tube. Clean the surface you’re attaching to with rubbing alcohol to ensure a good bond, and press them on hard to make the pressure-sensitive adhesive stick.
Big wires can be used to support small wires. Best example: if using SparkMax controllers, zip tie the CAN and encoder wires to the power wires about 1-2" away from the controller. That strain-relieves the small wires so they don’t break at the JST connectors.
Heat shrink tubing is wonderful for making clean ends (such as of jacketed multi-conductor wire), insulating battery lugs, and the like. It’s best to have a selection of sizes on hand as it only shrinks about 2:1. There are versions with adhesive inside but they can be a mess if you need to remove, so we usually avoid those.
For runs on and around moving mechanisms, you have options:
- Expandable braided sleeve - looks nice, hard to put on or replace when damaged. Needs heat shrink over ends so they don’t unravel.
- Split braided sleeve - better choice, wraps around the bundle.
- Spiral wrap - holds wires tightly together, adds more abrasion resistance. Can have a mind of its own and is a pain to install/remove on long sections.
- Some mechanisms need “energy chain” to guide wires through a controlled path.
Hope this gives you some ideas!
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We’ve been experimenting with “wire in tube” (using grommets).
I really like not have the wires out where some stray frame incursion can get to them.
On time we did a wire in tube in an elevator and it looked great, but when there was some damage to the tube it made it much more time consuming to swap compared to if it were zip tied to the side.
So my advice if you ever think you will replace the tube don’t do wire in tube or prewire a spare for a quick swap. For internal frame members that are likely to stay all year and not be damaged wire in tube is fine.
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True, we haven’t done an elevator in recent memory.
We’ve done that (including for our 2023 arm) but later moved away from it due to how difficult it would make repairs.
That was exactly our concern as well.
Even if the frame is not damaged, bear in mind that if the wires are damaged and need to be swapped, it’s typically going to be difficult to pull just one out (especially if already connectorized) and put in a replacement. Of course, hopefully in such a case you could splice the wire outside the tube to fix the damage, unless it’s too close to the point of entry into the tube.
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