ELECTRICAL
In the professional world of electrical wire installations the wiring is installed neat and orderly manor. If you install the electrical wiring in straight lines with 90 degree bends you robot will be great to look at and be easy to work on. Take time to number or mark all of the wires at both ends. Label The relays and PWM's to what motors they go to. If you install it sloppy, cutting corners and no ties it will look bad and will be hard to trace problems down. Take pride in your work and you will be happy to show others what you have acomplished.
Some thing we do with the battery in make it a modular plug in. All of our batteries are the same. When it is time to change a battery we just pull it out and plug in another.
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Want your electrical to look great, use solid wire. You can bend perfect 90's and it won't bend back. This is only used from the fuse block to the PWM's and relay's. Install quick disconnect wire connectors at the motors for easy motor replacement. Make a bracket wire trough at 2 - 3 inches above the wiring board for the control wires to run separate from the motor wires. It's like having a wire rack. Save copies of the PWM's and spike relays in your drawing programs, and when its time to lay out the electrical it won't take long at all to set up your board. Plus you can move it around until it fits.
Above is exactly the same lay out of our 2007 robot electrical below.
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In 2008 we installed the relays and PWM's on one side and ran the wires on the other side of the electrical board. This made it easier to work on and keep tract of the wires. Below is a picture of our 2008 robot (the picture is distorted to make it fit on the page) with the left, back and right side of the robot.
Build a board on wheels with the items from older kit of parts used to help show new students how all the items in the kit of parts work. It also can be used to test programming and parts. The reverse side can be a erase marker board.
Pneumatics, electric, sensors and controllers can be shown on the board.