Improvements to the chassis building instructions

[robind]

When building my chassis, I followed the instructions here. At no point did it talk about having to modify the aluminum profile pieces for electrical conductivity. As I learned in another thread some changes are necessary to be able to charge

It would be nice to have known earlier in the project build that I needed to sand down the Aluminum profile sides which are connecting to the PCB, otherwise there's no way to charge the battery through the screws (as is the design). I had to partly-disassemble my chassis in order to remove the profile so that I could take an orbital sander (or belt sander) to those profiles until they are shiny (and conductive).

It would have been appreciated if this was mentioned in the chassis assembly instructions.

Maybe the type of aluminum profile has changed over the years, and now this step is necessary? Has this step always been necessary?

Is the above-linked instructions the official instructions for building the chassis? Can/should they be moved into the wiki, so that we can make changes to them for the current generation of parts provided? (e.g. new motors aren't the same as those in the guide)

 

[robind]

Perhaps another option would be to electrically connect the chassis bolts with the PCB bolts using wire and some rings (like these).
This would preclude the need to sand down the aluminum.

 

[StevieL]

Hello robind,

you can also use hammerheadnuts (like these) to connect the pcb to the profile. With the hammerheadnuts there is no need to sand down the anodized surface layer.

Greets, Stefan

 

[wolodk]

Another improvenment for the chassis - in my experience - is a threaded rod (M6) under the bottom, close to the wheel axes, to clamp both sides together. By time the chassis sides bend under the load of the mower, the camber angle for the wheels gets bigger and the bottom plate runs out of the slotted side plates. A threaded rod, 1 ekstra hole in each side plate and 2 self locking nuts keeps the chassis rock solid and tight.