Wire loom

what type of loom are you using for your wires and how do you secure it to the robot? Photo’s are helpful to see how your wires are secured.

We get “split wire loom” from amazon, and use the 1.5 in, 1in, .75in and .375in sizes. A zip tie secures the bundle to the frame and keeps the loam closed.

2 Likes

vouch for alex tech, it was quite strong even when abraded against sharp edges inside of tubing and such.

on another note, is your ENTIRE brainboard upside down? thats WILD and im curious how that worked…

How do you guys keep the loom from shedding?

Worried the electrons will fall out? :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like

I keep losing my protons actually… its quite an issue when my copper wires turn into nickel

1 Like

A word of warning:

Some of this stuff has been very abrasion resistant, some has had a tendency to snag. I am not quite sure what the differences are that cause this.

I don’t know if Alex tech wire loom is all sourced the same or if it is a lottery.

I’m going to guess you’re talking about the ends of it coming apart. You want to use a heat knife to cut wire loom so the ends are melted together. It’s not much different than the way you want to cut the ends of the rope you might use for things like elevators. Something like this does wonders;

1 Like

You can take a lighter to the end, use a hot knife, or some super glue (before or after you cut)

2 Likes

In addition to the fabric sleeves we use hard spiral wrap and corrugated loom - split and solid, and the flexible “trays” or conduit.

Never put a connector in any sheathe but if you do, you need labels to mark the spots where your cables will fail soon (at least ours fail at the least obvious most inaccessible location).
image
image

1 Like

We have sometimes used hard plastic wire loom, but I prefer frequent zip ties to bundle and control while still easy to trace and inspect for most of the robot. We will use loom passing through mechanical joints, but this year’s robot didn’t have any joints.

there must be an award for real lacing

We started doing upside down electronics in the off-season of 2020, and we love it. it is most useful on robots that you won’t have access through the top of, (like our robot this year). But unless you have really good access from the top it guarantees less headache when wiring and inspecting your wiring between matches, just make sure you cover the bottom with a panel to keep anything from snagging on the way by.

We did have a problem once in 2023 where a combination of a loose fitting fuse and regularly
catching air off the charging station caused our radio to loose power in a match. A dab off hot glue could fix this problem, but we decided to overkill it and now fit one of these to our PDH every year.

5 Likes

Do you have a CAD design that you could publish for that wonderful design?

Yup, under belly wiring is OP.

So much free real estate down there that’s often wasted.

It also is extremely easy to debug all your issues when you can tip the bot over look through a sheet of clear polycarb and see what looks messed up.

It’s so much better since you can have everything in one spot rather than wiring going in various directions to electronics that aren’t motors.

All of our CAD from past seasons can be found on our website. Enjoy!

Link titled “PDH Breaker Cover”