Many of the connectors in the roboRIO are friction fit. This year, my team intends to use quite a few rev thru-bore encoders, which will rely on these connectors to communicate with the rio. I don’t want to risk them coming unplugged due to shock and vibration mid-match.
How do you guys prevent this? Previously we just doused everything in hot glue which worked, but looked very terrible. Are there any safe alternatives?
Last year my team used a combo of hot glue and electrical tape that would cover the unused pins of the Rio and also stick to the sides of the connectors for a little extra support. With some patience, it can look okay and we had minimal issues (really just with our RSL) . Used this method for the PWM and DIO ports, as well as our RSL connection.
Hot glue is pretty standard practice, it might look messy but it works great. Some people have made some type of custom circuit board apparatus that goes over the RIO and has locking connecters but nothing is for sale to my knowledge.
I found some header clip stls online. I might use those and go over them with a layer of hot glue just to be sure. Electrical issues have taken out my bot many times in the past, so I’m paranoid…
Hey! We just showcased our designs for a roboRIO HAT and associated button board.
Thanks for linking. If there is enough interest I can set up an order form and share the files.
For anyone interested in the files for these boards, you can find them in this post here. A side benefit of any sort of rio board is if you need to swap your rio for any reason, you can just lift the board off, change rios and place it back down without undoing a bunch of wires.
There are boards that were for sale at Swyft that use JST style connectors (out of stock, and the note on the webpage says they won’t be restocked). We don’t really use those connectors for anything, so we made the above custom ones.
Also a COTS one that’s being made by one of our alums! If Molex SL is your team’s standard could be a good fit.
I would stick with hot glue, especially since we’re transitioning next year away from the same RIO design. Its not pretty, but will allow you to dedicate the resources to other areas in electrical such as wire labeling, or good soldering practices.
A whole lot of hot glue works really well. Can be a pain to take off though.
vertosrobotics seems down. is it down for you?
It’s a brand new product he is working on launching - probably down for some edits for a bit.
Hi, I am the owner of this site. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.
I briefly opened the website earlier this week, but it was not finalized. I briefly took it down because the product listing was inaccurate. I have updated the description and added CAD downloads.
My initial plan was to officially launch next week once the new products arrived. The website is now accessible again to view that one product, though no items are currently in stock. More updates will be added over the next few days.
