Very T̶h̶r̶i̶f̶t̶y̶ Nifty.
5010 has used these with a lot of success too - Printables
Definitely good to print a few and bring them to your events as they’re great items for newer teams who may not know about protecting their main breaker.
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We have been using liquid electrical tape for several seasons now, and it certainly looks a lot better than the mess of tape.
We haven’t had any issues with it, although getting it off is harder and it is liable to get everywhere.
Yeah, I’llLimelight, an integrated vision coprocessor put it on Printables and MakerWorld in the next day or two.
I’d love to see a picture of that! I don’t have a ton of experience with liquid electrical tape, but I’ve never had it come out looking “good”.
Neither electrical tape or liquid electrical tape are useful for the voltages I deal with at work so we don’t even have any. 
Great idea! I’llLimelight, an integrated vision coprocessor bring a bunch to the PNW block party event this weekend to have in the pits.
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I usually hate on liquid electrical tape, but I’ve been using it more for similar applications (bolted lugs) and it’s growing on me. I don’t think I’ve ever touched a main breaker connection after initial installation, but you could still cram a socket over the dried liquid to get the nut off. These parts are easy enough to scrape any gunk off. Also a big fan of just not doing anything and spending effort elsewhere, but a nice 3DP part is a good way to get away from that.
There’s a whole thread somewhere, but don’t use Nordlock wedge-lock washers on that type of connection unless you really know what you’re doing and secure the cables to prevent the lug from rotating. Nylon insert nuts alone are fine. If anything on the battery circuit gets hot enough to deform them you have bigger problems.
And start teaching students about torque specs and striping if you have problems
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While its true that most lock washers lose a lot of their benefit if the part they are on rotates, I have a hard time imagining how using them could make things worse vs not.
The issues that the battery terminals have with loosening are not as bad here for a few reasons:
- The only leads that see any motion are the ones to the Anderson plug, and only if it is not fastened down.
- The bolted connection is not a thru bolt, the stud cannot rotate.
- The 1/4-28 nut is actually able to generate sufficient pre-load vs the 10-32 used on the batteries.
You have got me thinking though, this connection might benefit from using a Belleville washer in conjunction with the nyloc.
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I’m interested in the spark max clips you have in the background! Do you have a CAD file for that?
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Yes I do! I was already working on polishing up the design and will have them posted in a day or two.
2412 has used various versions of those since around 2019 or so, and they work great! Technically they have been available online since then, but the original version had a really weird mounting pattern.
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If the lug is forced to rotate, a wedge-lock washer can cause the terminal nut to unscrew in situations where a plain or Belleville or etc washer would have allowed the lug to turn independently from the nut. This is dependent on the direction that the lug rotates, and it can sort of ratchet off. Many teams don’t bother securing the 4/6awg battery wires, so the side with the SB50 can see some force.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I’ve caught a few of these nuts loose over the years, mostly as an inspector helping rookies (this is a problem you let happen once)
Nordlocks are probably fine here, but it goes against the manufacturer documentation and there are better, cheaper solutions that work great. I pretty much only use Nord-locks on engines and other hot, oily things that nylon would dislike.
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New Updated Version!
I noticed that requiring specific hardware in many cases posed too much of a barrier-to-entry to bother installing breaker covers, so last year I started working on a clip-on V2 version and I handed them out at a couple of off-season events. However, these covers don’t solve all problems faced by main breakers, there was still one issue: Robot inspectors want to see the breakers clearly labeled. With that in mind I started work on a V3 version with integrated labeling. For teams with access to multi color 3D printing, I present the Nifty Bot Breaker Shroud V3!
I’ll have a very small quantity available at champs for teams that want one. Stop by team 2412’s pit in Curie and ask for one (all 3 cable orientations available)!
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Definitely makes it visible. However, it does not protect against accidentally getting shut off. We lost a match a couple of years ago when a robot rammed us and slid up enough to turn off our main breaker (it was unintentional; our fault for not protecting it).
In the last couple of years, we have used a 3dp cover which recesses the off button, but we find it is still easy for a human. Happy to share if anyone wants.
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Yep, since I’ve been out of state since Friday I asked him to pick up the ones that I printed remotely over the weekend.
It provides plenty of protection from game pieces and robot bumpers, and should be adequate to keep out all but the pointiest of robot intakes. Opposing robots reaching into your frame perimeter and hitting your breaker is a card-able offense anyway so protecting against that was a lower priority than providing clear access to the controls and covering the power terminals.
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If you are at champs and your robot could use a main breaker cover, then come on over to 2412’s pit in Curie and grab one!
If anyone wants to say hi, I’m the mentor in the yellow Robototes shirt.
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