Quote:
Originally posted by RebAl
Cooling off the circuit breaker defeats the purpose of a breaker in the first place, by cooling them you are allowing more current to pass through, the reason its tripping is that there is too much current, it has to be thought of in that respect, otherwise you might as well just circumvent the breaker all together
2 exceptions:
1- the breaker is tripping due to mechanical forces
2- you cool the breaker between matches
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Freeze spray never allows significantly more current to pass through the breaker. It should be noted that every time the breaker trips it is easier to trip the next time. Freeze spray can help to get the breaker back to normal, in other words it will trip as if it was new or close to it. Last year, the breaker problems became more apparent than in past years. We had a breaker that took only a slight tap with a screw driver to trip it because it had tripped so many times. While I know this thread was designated for design strategies, there are several tricks you should use around the breaker that we learned last year.
1. The freeze spray does work. We used it a lot last year.
2. Mount it loosely and orient it in a way that the switch is not in line with the most likely collision direction.
3. If a breaker has tripped several times, replace it. Especially do this if you have many matches left to play.
4. Don't use the breaker as a switch. These breakers aren't switch rated, and by using as a switch it subsequently is easier to trip. Turn the robot off by unplugging the battery cable.