circuit breaker malfunction
 

Has anyone had the Hi-Amp Buss® 120A curcuit breaker open the curcuit temporarily without triggering the reset lever?

Re: circuit breaker malfunction
 

Just posted on your other thread... As for the 120A circuit breaker, we've never had any trouble with it. You may have a defective one, but I doubt it. You may be pulling too many AMP's through your main breaker (Do you have a lot of motors on your robot? Are they geared to go really fast?) or you may simply have a short. Make sure none of the cables after the breaker have rubbed away their insulation and are touching.

Re: circuit breaker malfunction
 

Yes I have had the 120 Amp breaker fail on me before. The robot would lose power while sitting on the field. The switch still felt fine when you switched it on and off. It's hard to find that problem sometimes. We just replaced it with a spare.

Re: circuit breaker malfunction
 

I would check closely for loose wires. Give all of your main distribution wiring connections a little tug and see if anything pops loose. Your description sounds like intermittent connection problems to me. You could also have a connection that is crimped over insulation. You can check for continuity with a circuit tester, too. Of course these tests should be done with the battery removed from the robot.

Re: circuit breaker malfunction
 

yep check all of your loose wires and make sure it clicks when you turn it on.

Last year ours actually broke and we had to order a new one

Re: circuit breaker malfunction
 

Yes, on a rare occassion these do fail. It is a problem during manufacture. We test all of the breakers with this simple test. Turn on the robot, then lightly tap the red reset button. If the robot power is intermittant, replace the breaker. These devices are bimetal, temperature reacting, "snap action" devices. During manufacture, the bimetal contact is riveted in place and a light misalignment of the rivet press causes the bimetal to deform enough that it doesn't press against the opposing contact when turned on. This condition gets worse with time as the light contact causes localized heating and arcing of the contact surfaces.