Hey, does anyone know of a way to strip the black insulation off the light sensor? We need to shorten them down A LOT, but the last time I tried to lengthen the wires I almost sliced the blue and white ones off.
Tips? Tricks? 
Iāve had decent luck with using a knife to score a complete circle 3 or 4 times around, not actually cutting all the way through, and the firmly twisting the insulation you want to remove, it usually tears neatly along the score, and can be slipped off.
Iāve only done this with 6" lengths, it tends to get harder with longer bits to remove, but you could repeat the procedure a few times as necessary.
Matt
I traditionally do the same thing, only I:
- Score (shallowly) a complete circle around the shielding.
- Bend the wire (about 90 degrees), causing the shielding to separate where it has been scored.
- Push a blade down SLOWLY (never āsliceā) into the separation until the shielding breaks apart - usually it will break apart without you having to go all the way through with your blade.
- Bend the wire in another direction, and repeat - until the shielding has broken all the way around.
This is what I do for really large wires (that I have to manually strip) when I donāt want to cut into the wire underneath, or extremely tiny wires where Iām afraid Iāll cut all the way through.
-Danny
Really you should be using a cable slitter, or a hook blade linemanās knife for safety but a utility knife will work. Just score the jacket all the way around and twist and pull it off.
It can be done with a pair of linemanās pliers or dykes too but unless youāre good at doing it that way itās real easy to screw up the conductors inside.
One of my mentor just took a razor blade and slice straight down, slowly. I donāt know why he did that, but our sensors are working fine.
i wonder if a plumberās tubing cutter (wheel type) would work? i will have to try one tomorrow.
I wouldnāt recommend a tubing cutter, it works for coax but not for more fragile wire. If you take a sharp knife or a razor blade, bend the wire in half, and gently rock the blade over the outside jacket until the inner wire becomes visible. Rotate the wire and repeat until you have opened the jacket all the way around. Now gently grab the wire with a hand on both sides of the open jacket and pull while sliding one hand towards the end of the cable. If you repeat this operation, the entire outer jacket can be removed.
However, I highly recommend that you leave as much wire on the sensor as possible so that when you use it next year on a different robot you have enough length to install it. Simply coil the excess cable into a tight coil and tywrap it in place, out of the way.
More sage advice from Big Al. I was going to have my electrical team trim them back but now, no. Thanks
Excellent advice as always. Even if they donāt put lines on the field next year these devices should work well as a ābreak beamā type sensor or optical limit/position switch when paired with a bit of reflective material. I believe that is actually the āintendedā purpose of these devices.