Hello, my team has been using a power expander for quite some time but now whenever we turn on the robot, the status light blinks red and green and the motors ( 4 powering the flywheel) twitch. I’ve tried replacing it and the battery I have hooked up and nothing is helping.
Yea we’ve noticed the wires are slightly severed on both expanders we’ve tried I guess we just need a new one.
Not necessarily, as per <SG15a> you are allowed to repair external wires if the length stays the same.
can attest to this; our power expander failed at competition and our bot preformed badly
I’ve seen this shorting happen a few times now right at the strain relief. Just a bad design. If you are going to use a power expander, always have a backup one on hand.
Reason #1 I don’t like this part as it stands now. We’ve burned through a few of these lately too at the same spot. Team 81J had theirs break while at judging a few weeks back. Not pyrotechnics to enhance their presentation, just a little fire/melt down courtesy of the power expander.
Tip to avoid this: Use a 2" standoff at the screw hole holding the power expander and zip tie the power wire to the standoff. This alleviates the stress on the wire at the base joint where the wires come exposed and then tend to short spectacularly in a melted mess.