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Team 358
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Electronics Resources
Make Your Own PWM Cables and Driver Station Connectors
Where to get .1" header pin connectors & servo wire (
, 132 KB)
References
Check out Battery University for online practical battery knowledge.Wire Gauge: Amps & Ohms - Find the gauge that's right for your job
PWM Signal Generator
A simple hardware solution for driving motors at variable speeds without a FIRST Robot Controller. Makes for quick and easy bench tests, testing prototype and final motor assemblies by the mechanical sub-team, without having to wait for the programmers or electrical guys to show up. Free your mechanical guys to test stuff on their own while you are safely far away.PWM Signal Generator (
, 276 KB)
DC Motor Tachometer
Turn any DC motor into a tachometer, a sensor to measure the instantaneous speed of a rotating wheel or shaft.DC Motor Tachometer (
, 120 KB)
12v Competition Battery Tester
Contrary to what you might expect, not all Competition Kit batteries are created equal. We have received brand new batteries that did not perform well at all while older batteries were outstanding! When you’re in a match it’s critical to be able to depend on your power source to perform up to advertised specs. You don't want to have your battery drop suddenly to a low voltage. Our testing station started out as a way to evaluate the condition of our older, prior year batteries to tell us if we should order new spares.12v Battery Tester (
, 384 KB)
Source Data (
, 36.0 KB)
MK 12v Battery
Here are the technical specs for the 12v battery we use for competition power.Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid (VRLA) Gelled Electrolyte (gel) and Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) Batteries (
, 1 MB)
Analog Multi-position Switch
With only one of the many unused analog inputs on the Driver Station you can make a multi-position switch to send a large number of possible selections to your robot. We've used this in the past to select mutiple arm pre-set positions, e.g., stow, pickup, carry, cap, high-five.Analog Multi-Position Switch (
, 26 KB)
How to Disassemble an Anderson Connector
Here's an interesting spec. sheet pdf from the manufacturer of the Anderson connectors.Quick Disconnect Assembly (
, 118 KB)
Victor Speed Controllers
Victor 884 Users Manual (, 60 KB)
Here is the spec. sheet for the MOSFETs used as the core of the Victor Speed Controllers:
Victor 884 FET (
, 214 KB)
Jaguar Speed Controllers
Jaguar Site
Jaguar 1 Page Description (
, 106 KB)
Gray Jaguar Getting Started (
, 193 KB),
Black Jaguar Getting Started (, 834 KB)
Spike Relay
IFI Spike Installation Info. (
, 12 KB)
IFI Spike Users Manual Plus Specs. (
, 47 KB)
KOP US Digital Encoders
The KOP encoders are 360 CPR (Counts Per Revolution), with 4X quadrature decoding, you get 1440 positions per revolution. Which gives you a unique position every 1/4 degree. 10,000 maximum RPM for these encoders.
- 1. +5 VDC power
- 2. Quadrature A channel
- 3. Ground
- 4. Quadrature B channel
US Digital site, YouTube Assembly Guide
US Digital Encoder EP4 Assembly Instructions (
, 101 KB)
US Digital Encoder Datasheet (
, 346 KB)
*** Legacy IFI Control System Hardware ***
2008 Electrical Rules Summary
A two page summary sheet of the critical power distribution robot rules for 2008. Wire gauge, colors, circuit breaker requirements, proper Spike and Victor wiring, Victor calibration, and finally the pinout assignments for Team 358's RC.2008 Electrical Rules Summary (
, 484 KB)
Electrical workshop - December 2007
An in-house workshop on the standard robot electrical system, followed by practical proper wire stripping/crimping/soldering was held one evening. The workshop covered basic theory, major components of the FIRST robotic electrical system, details on the FIRST Robot Controller and how it works with the spikes and speed controllers to command things to happen, FIRST rules and restrictions on our electrical system design, wire gauges, measurement instruments, such as volt meters and oscilloscopes, etc.Here is the supporting handout outline the workshop followed: Electrical Workshop 12/06/07 (
, 36 KB)
Substitute 12v Power Supply
When the old IFI RC is needed, it’s often not so convenient to lug around a full-sized 12v battery and it’s accompanying support circuitry just to test programs and algorithms. A miniature power supply, perfectly adequate for driving the RC for testing purposes is as simple as a 9v battery. Although simply holding the battery to the RC 12v terminals will work, it's kind of hard to balance in position. By placing that 9v battery in a project box and adding the proper connectors a rugged portable power supply is created. The same technique can be used to create a portable power supply for the O/I board.Substitute RC Power Supply (
, 190 KB)
Portable Driver Controls Power Supply
Isn't it tragic that the robot, which is so free to roam where it will, should be tethered (figuratively) to an Operator Interface that must be plugged into an outlet to operate. Well free the robot from the tyranny of the wall outlet by building yourself a simple portable battery pack. This can also be constructed from rechargable batteries.Portable Operator Interface Power Supply (
, 124 KB)
No longer used, but still kicking around most FRC shops are the old Exide 12v batteries.
Exide Battery Spec.
(, 510 KB)
Double-up Joysticks
FIRST published this wiring diagram to take advantage of the normally unused analog inputs on each 2000-2008 OI joystick port to hook 2 joysticks to a single port.How to Use 2 Joysticks on a single OI Port (
, 118 KB)
Victor Legacy
Victor 883 Installation Info. (, 28 KB)
Victor 883 Users Manual (
, 32 KB)
Victor 883 FET (
, 221 KB)
2003-2006 Radios
IFI Radio Modem Operators Manual (2003-2006) (, 225 KB)
2007-2008 Radios
IFI Robot Controller Radio Modem Operators Manual (2007-2008) (, 87 KB)
IFI Operator Interface Radio Modem Operators Manual (2007-2008) (
, 87 KB)
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