V5 port burnout

[technik3k]

It is perfectly legal to use conductive sleeve/braid as the wire protection per <R7f>.

@technik3k

I found several products that might be able to achieve such task:

Flexo Anti-Stat
Flexo Conductive Braided Sleeving
Flexo® Chrome Expandable Braided Sleeving

Assuming average V5 robot needs about 16" of cables, then it will cost $20-$30 to protect it, depending on the supplier.

Such wire sleeve will let you electrically connect all parts of the robot and will help prevent static electricity built-up between them.

@technik3k

there is no problem pulling 1 or 2 strands of the bulk cable through the braid. Here is the ~900mm cable that I custom made with this sleeve:

The resistance between copper leads is about 6k ohm (2k/foot), which should be enough to drain any static charge.

Once again, it is perfectly legal per <R7f> (See the Game Manual).

@jpearman

see this Q&A

V5 Brain Blown Ports : Robot Events

I understand that GDC ruled consistently with <R21> of “no modifications to electronic components”, but it is unfortunate that there is no detailed knowledge base article other that ESD Notice and it wasn’t linked from the Q&A.

A lot of teams are struggling with damaged hardware and VEX is mute on any hardware changes that could increase ESD protection.

Then if you really want to connect electrical V5 Brain ground to the robot chassis you can get creative with legacy wires and orange jumpers:

@technik3k

But you need to be very careful, because it could potentially create even more opportunities for ESD damage if metal subsystems of the robot are not electrically tied to the chassis first.