We’re having a tough time figuring out where and how to mount electronics. Is this mounting legal? Is it safe? Will it pass inspection? We’re planning to put our battery in the bellypan that’s currently empty.
Nothing inherently illegal about that mounting. I would suggest making sure there’s extra protection (sheet of polycarb) as needed but that’s about it.
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Last year, we mounted almost all of our electronics under the main belly pan of our robot and had no problems with our inspectors. Like Eric said, I would add an easily removable polycarb plate to protect the electronics from any damage.
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Three things I would worry about.
1st without looking at the other side I would be worried the note would be dragging on the bolts on the other side. Could be illegal.
2nd that poly carb base looks to weak to just set at battery on it without some kind of brace. Could be illegal.
3rd the 6AWG wires and the CAT 5/6 look to be excessively long. Not illegal but bad practice.
I would recommend using wood.
Make sure your RPM and roboRIO circuits both have 10A fuses (R615B, R617B). It looks like you’re using 20A fuses.
You might have an issue with R410 on the intake side. Is that thin bar intended to be a bumper support?
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Make sure you configure your Navx appropriately.
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Yes it is legal… But I would recommend changing it.
That location is at high risk of being shot by high velocity notes (a vortex on a 0.5:1 with 4in wheels can shoot at nearly 120 mph). Of you are dead set on that location, consider adding some type of cover. I think you are better off moving must of that down into your belly pan.
The notes won’t be directly on the other side of this polycarb – we’re going to have another piece for our shooter.
We have bracing and support underneath and we’re going to put more above as well. It’ll hold; we’ve done it before.
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We definitely will lol…or we’re also thinking of just connecting over USB.
Assuming from appearance that this fits into the kitbot archetype?
If that is correct, I am a bit concerned about vibrations affecting the electronics.
As others have said, legal yes, but very exposed. You will definitely want a protective cover over it. Additional observations from your photos:
- If your Rio is bolted to the 3D printed red plate, consider adding zip ties through its zip tie slots, or strapped around the whole thing. Those tiny brass mounting inserts in the bottom of the Rio can and do tear out. If you take a hard hit, you don’t want it to come loose and fall.
- Your NavX at that orientation may be a challenge to use - at minimum it will need to be accounted for by your programming team. NavX seems to have a feature called OmniMount that may help, but I’m not sure if it works with non-orthogonal positions. And it will likely see a lot more noise from vibration mounted up high like that.
- Rio connections (DIO, PWM, RSL) will need to be taped/hot glued/otherwise retained or they will shake loose from the connectors. (This is true even when you don’t have gravity “helping” to unplug them.)
- I realize this isn’t fully assembled, but make sure all your wires are eventually bundled and tied down/secured. Wires that move/swing as the robot moves are a recipe for trouble.
- It’s not clear where the rest of your SparkMAX are intended to go, but putting them on the board with the other electronics would mean a lot of encoder extensions. I’d strongly suggest locating them close enough to the motors to not require extensions.
Good luck with your build!
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