Slip ring data issues - run parallel data conductors through slip ring?

[SpicyBatch]

Hey there folks! Circle Flirt has been pretty successful. There’s been a number of upgrades (battery powered, photocell switch, travels in a road case, reasonably robust weatherizing)

I just had another slip ring begin to not transmit data at the latest event. The data was there, there were just artifacts in the program when it spun. I already replaced a different slip ring before E11 (with the same issue) hoping that it was damaged from earlier installations when it didn’t have the protective hub caps around the slip rings. This could still be the case.

I wish I had taken a video of the symptoms onsite. It was flickering and glitching to whole solid colors post slip ring. It looked like micro interruptions in the data signal rather than 12v interruption because there were no gaps in emission.

The bulk of the question is:

Has anyone tried sending parallel data signals across multiple conductors of a slip ring? My theory is that the contact points in the slip rings aren’t maintaining continuity for very small packets of time. Down to the frame rate even. And if it’s a pure interruption, having parallel signals could add redundancy to the signal.

Are there clear reasons why that wouldn’t work? Or would introduce conflicting data?

[SpicyBatch]

I’m fairly confident this is not a contamination issue in the slip rings, even though it’s generally installed in harsh environments. Fairly robust is a good way to describe how I encased the slip rings. I haven’t inspected the hubs yet but every time I have, they’ve looked as clean as the day I sealed them.

This is the point where I can pivot to having a controller on each ring, or figure out the slip ring issues. From a pure complexity standpoint, Id prefer to keep one single controller in the base structure and transmit data through the slip rings. The controller is far more protected this way and subject to far less stress AND it’s already set up that way.

I do have 4 conductors to spare in the slip rings currently. So… Parallel data across slip ring conductors?