I was recently at a FRC robotics competition at Kettering in Michigan, and I looked at our electrical board. I was thinking of ways to enter the maps contest and be different because I'm really not that artistic or detailed at pictures. But having built the board and wired it, I knew how to fix it. I don't remember exactly how it came to be, but I saw a map. The electrical panel, with all its wires and networks, power to here and there, it guides you to where the problem is, assuming you know where you're going, just like a map. This started my quest to make an entry into this contest that would highlight the aspects of our robots electrical panel.

Supplies

One robot with an electrical panel

Images of the board to reference

Images of most components can be found on google images

Step 1: Take Photos of Your Robot's Electrical Board

This is a photo of my robots electrical panel. Our robot, Odyssey, had a lexan panel with an LED board and another lexan sheet covering it. The LED board was programmable to a GIF of our choice and was also well protected, along with the electrical panel. Having a photo of your robots electrical system and setup can help when trying to model it on a computer.

Step 2: Add Images of Components to a Google Doc

I simply went to google and found images of all the components we use on our system. I've uploaded RoboRio, power distribution panel, pneumatic control module, voltage regulator module, Talon SRX, Talon SR, a wago, a radio, and a spark max. Then they get uploaded to a google doc. You may have to play with the scaling a little bit. Then create your panel, move them around to position them about where they are on your robots panel.

Step 3: Add the Lines

Every electrical board has wires, for power, for a CAN bus, pneumatic tubing. This is represented here by my color coded wires from each component. This is very important when trying to follow wires when repairing the robot, and presenting your notebook to judges if you apply for awards. Make these consistent, I color coded the wires, and also made them to scale.