My team has struggled with the current wire connectors we are using and are looking for other options to use. We anyone be willing to comment what they are use, a picture of your wire management, and how many times you have had your wire connectors come undone during a match!
out of curiosty, what are you currently using and wat issues is it giving you?
We are using wago connectors in the past and we have wires come out periodically
We use Anderson powerpole connectors for all of our power wiring. For our CAN bus and signal wiring we use both 3 pin DuPont (with the white clips from REV to hold them together) as well as Deutsch connectors.
For PDP/PDH level wiring we really like using Anderson Powerpole products. Last season we never had a single issue with these connections. We’ve had robots fall from the Traversal Rung and still have all the electronics stay together with them. There is a slight learning curve on how to get a good crimp and make sure the contacts are fully in the housing, but once you pick it up it’s really easy.
Our team likes to buy them from Powerwerx as their service is fast. This starter kit gives you everything you need to get going including a crimper. If you’re using REV they also make white housings for the three wire motors. If you’re using Krakens these will plug right into the Adapter board. (Full disclosure, these are affiliate links but I’d been a satisfied customer of theirs for a decade before becoming an affiliate).
For CAN and signal level work we’ve been using AMP “PWM-style” connectors and using labels to tape them together and but we’re exploring whether to move to Molex for next year.
Main power, anything on a breaker from the PDH we use Andersons.
Any SIGNAL LEVEL wire or for our power to the RIO we use these small unofficial WAGO connectors, like the ones WCP sells. We used to do PWM style molex, but our luck and my crimping ability made those terrible so we switched to WAGOs.
I have noticed those unofficial WAGOs can come out after enough time and force, but I hear the official WAGOs are much better.
Edit: Additional stuff about the Andersons. Last year I didn’t do a very good job with strain relieve, and it led to some of our swerve modules coming unplugged after hard enough hits. This is an improvement point for me.
No connector is a silver bullet. The key regardless of connector is mounting the connector to a surface so its additional weight doesn’t tug on wires during high g impacts. Once it is mounted you then need to provide strain relief on both sides of the connector so the wires don’t pull on the connector. If you do those things well the connector won’t matter much.
We typically use Anderson Powerpole connectors for all of our power wiring, and we’re in the process of switching to full molex crimps and connectors for our CANbus wiring. The latching connectors are really nice and we’re excited to fully transfer.
Powerpole 15, 30, 45 for power, and Molex SL for CAN and PWM. We do occasionally use generic DuPont versions for PWM, mostly when they are pre-crimped.
We also use Wagos, or generic lever nuts from WCP for power and CAN, although we have been trying to phase them out. The WCP CAN lever nuts are very useful though, and is something I would recommend having on supply because they can be a quick fix if you break a CAN wire.
Just twist the wires together and wad up some tape over the ends. As long as no conductor is exposed, you should be good.
Actually, please don’t.
As others have mentioned, we use Anderson connectors for power. We do use Wagos for CAN lines also. If properly strain-relieved, they work fine.
Last season we zip tied or hot glued EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
This was… Annoying.
(Although I think we may have at most one encoder come loose to a spark max in an official match)
At this point, why not just solder the cables altogether?
Hot glue is much easier to remove to reuse the connector/wire .
For pretty much all motor power we use Anderson Powerpole connectors, with the exception of the swerve Krakens where we cut 10 AWG wire to length from the PDH and crimp the ring terminal on the end.
For CAN we use ferrules with CTRE’s CAN Connectors for prototyping and early builds, then come back and solder our entire CAN bus once the layout and structure are more finalized.
And then for anything else signal level we do a mix of either cutting and terminating our own cables to length, or using Wago connectors if it’s something that needs to be removed/reconfigured frequently.
As far as wire management, we definitely use lots of zipties to secure wires to the robot and keep them out of the way of moving components, and on exposed surfaces we also often add some sort of sleeving for a little extra protection (plus it looks nice when done properly). I’m not finding any good photos on my phone at the moment, but I can take some at our shop this weekend if needed.
If you are having wire pull out issues, that is a strain relief issue
Last year we spent a lot of time strain relieving and zip tying a lot of wires out of the way
We ran into only 1 CAN issue and 1 power issue last year, both due to improper strain relief
I would suggest sticking with the connectors you know and just taking a few extra hours to strain relief more. Make the wiring compact an neat
This was our experience—the knock-off WAGOs are prone to fail in a collision. And losing half your CAN bus in the middle of a match is not a recipe for success.
Highly recommend the retention clips that PowerWerx sells. Yes, zip ties also work, but the clips look nicer.
As others have said Andersons for 10/12 gauge (with zip ties because while the look less nice than clips, they are ~70 times cheaper than the official clips) and knockoff wagos (I like the ones that clip together) with ferrules for CAN wires.
For wire breaks or for extending wires long term we keep solder splices on hand, they are pretty cheap while being fast and easy to use.
Also we avoid crimping Molex\PWM as much as possible as they are easy to get wrong, this might change if we get one of those crimpers from FIRST choice.
My team uses andersons for power, and we solder all our CAN wires together now, and use wagos temporarily while were wiring the whole bus together. Havent had a single issue with the soldered wires yet, but it does take quite a bit of time to solder them all, so thats something to think about.