Jaguar's Spot: Tightly Packed Electronics and Machined Housing

After my motors, motor controllers, and HobbyKing radio transmitter and reciever came in the mail from a long and expressed journey, I could start on the electronics. I decided not to cram it all inside with the ring gear, because I may potentially get sprinkling aluminum flakes as the bearings etch away the water jetted surface. This change of plans required more machined aluminum, which I could do on the MITERS mill.

Attaching the motor. I couldn't find any small M3 screws in Stata's amazing collection of neatly organized screws, so I ordered some from McMaster (which got here the next day :P).

I filed a flat on the motor and tightened the spur gear down. The Allen wrench is very small, so I couldn't really get it at tight as I normally like.

Motor is attached. Next all the wiring needs to get hooked up to the motor controller. To hold all the wires, I machined a small box on the mill. (I used my CADed model to figure out the dimensions of a box which
maximized the volume in the space available).

I got some metal from the MITERS stock piles, and used the end mill to machine flat/perpendicular sides. The small blocks are 1" x 2", the middle piece is 1" x 3", and the 1/8" thick piece is 2.25" x 3" (actually first made this part 2" x 3" due to my lack of sleep).

I drilled and countersunk the holes in the freshly milled pieces (as well as in the back plate). The hole on the inside is very smooth so the wire's insulation does not get cut on the frame (I used a "deburring" tool to smooth the circular edge).

The screws I used for the orbit wheel rim were just long enough.

I used the belt sander to round off all the edges, and make smooth holes for the wires to enter the box. I managed to cram the small ESC controller into the space (without the fan). Now for all the soldering.

I cut off the XT60 connectors and replaced them with Dean's connectors, because I found a compact Dean's connector soldered onto some bullet connectors.

After finishing all the soldering and wiring, I CADed up a rectangular rim so I could enclose the "wirey" mess. I used the IDC's laser cutter to cut the same thick acrylic I used for the battery clips.