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Asked — Edited

Quick Swap Setup

Hey guys. Just had another innovative thought...

I have 2 Ez-b V4s. I have 3 robots. This is a problem.

Unlike a few people(cough cough Rich cough) who have an endless ez-b supply, I'm limited. So, I thought, "Oh, I'll just take the ez-b from MTR and put it in my new robot (---CENCORED--No hints yet folks.). Well, this is a good idea, as the ez-b base works well in this situation. BUT...

What about all the loose wires?!

Who wants to have to spend 10 minutes figuring out which wires go where? Why not have something plug and go? I tossed around some ideas, but what sorts of things have you guys done?


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#1  
Didn't someone (rich I think) have a hot swap project going on? I imagine it would be a pretty easy project board - female connectors on one side, and male on the other. Something that slides onto the ez-b.

Actually, this would be perfect because the pins go right through the PCB... http://www.banggood.com/Stackable-Long-Pins-Header-Connector-Female-Kit-p-88504.html?currency=CAD&refreshTmp=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_content=saul&utm_campaign=Electronic-xie-ca&gclid=COXz_q7ipsQCFYVhfgodnBMA1w

however, those are expensive from there - can probably find on eBay for pennies


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United Kingdom
#2  
I do "hot swap" but I didn't have a project where it was mentioned. A while back someone was toying with a hot swap, plug and go solution for the V3 but as good as my memory is, it's not that good and I can't remember who it was.

Josh was talking about a shield for the V4 the other week too which could be expanded upon to be simply a plug and go solution to save much messing around swapping EZ-Bs.

DJ's suggestion is what my suggestion would also be. With 0.1" spacings you could make something very easily with protoboard too. The challenge would be the I2C and Camera ports but it's not a huge challenge, it just means it's not as simple as soldering the 72 pin headers (104 including ADC ports if my quick mental math is correct - it may not be, it's 2:30am and I'm shattered).

Stackable pin headers should be extremely cheap. I have literally thousands which I bought when I needed around 10 because the cost difference was minimal and to buy 10 people (ebayers) seem to want to rip you off.

You could even make it even simpler and just drill the required holes in the correct places into a piece of plastic card (I forget the tradename of it, not the thick plexi but the thinner PVC sheets, you can get it in most craft stores) then fix the headers in with superglue. Since nothing needs to be joined together and the pins go straight through nothing needs to be soldered so glue would make it easier especially if you dislike soldering as much as I do (always a nervous solderer since picking the iron up the wrong way round at a young age - ouch!)


P.S. My supply of EZ-Bs isn't endless, I only have three of them:) My store credit has dramatically slowed down since I've been giving others a chance to get some answers in for the last 12 months or so:D
#3  
Low tech: Why not just label the wires with self adhesive tags. Put the port number on the tag and wrap it around the wire.

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United Kingdom
#5  
Like those however bear in mind the ports are grouped in 4s so you would need the headers to be 4x3 or 4x1 for the digital ports (the spacing between D3 and D4 is not 0.1" it's slightly more)
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