Here’s an interesting question. Is it legal to have the distro up side down? What we want to do is have a plate on the top of the chassis (6.5 inches tall, thick, whatever) and on top are our two breakers, maxi and circuit (12 port). Then on the bottom we want to have the distro. The distro would be accessible by a translucent plate on the bottom held on by maybe four screws, something easily and quickly removable. That way if somethign pops out of te distro we can just prop up the bot or put it on it’s side to get to it. The 6 awg coming off would make almost complete 180s through holes in the plate to get to the breakers on top.
I can’t see a problem with this. . . I would just make it so you as a team can just double check the screws on it after every 4 matches or so.
The thing they most want to be able to see/read off of is the robot controller. It is nice to see the Speed Controller lights for debugging purposes also.
Ryan,
There is no rule as to the distro orientation and it sounds like a unique idea for your design. Please be advised that the inspectors at all events will need to see the distro to check the wire guage and installation. It is best to protect your electrical system from picking up debris from the floor. I can tell you that field personel pick up the equivalent of a five gallon bucket of parts over the course of a three day event.
We thought (briefly) about having the whole electronics board upside down, this would keep stuff from falling into it, and allow full access by leaning the robot on it’s back. We’d have a cover underneath it to protect it, and the RC right side up with a window to see the lights, and hinged to get to the wiring.
But instead it looks like we’ll go with a normal configuration with an aluminum plate across the entire bottom of the robot, with the electronics sitting on a lexan sheet on top of this (so it can be quickly removed if needed), and a lexan cover over the whole thing to keep stuff out and the RC visible. The aluminum plate is really part of the chassis…which kind of dictates how the robot will be built…
I forgot one thing as a caveat. Do not mount the fuse panels upside down as the breakers tend to fall out.
That’s good to know ahead of time!