[RyanN]

Originally Posted by andreboos

12 gauge wire is required for Jaguars (R44)

I suggest you reread that rule.

[R44]

All active circuits shall be wired with appropriately sized wire:

Application
Minimum wire size
40A circuit: 12 AWG (2.052mm)
30A circuit: 14 AWG (1.628mm)

20A circuit: 18 AWG (1.024mm)
between the PD Board and the Analog and/or Solenoid Breakouts if a common power feed is used: 18 AWG (1.024mm)

between the PD Board and the Analog and/or Solenoid Breakouts if individual power feeds are used: 20 AWG (0.8128mm)
between the PD Board and the cRIO: 20 AWG (0.8128mm)
between the PD Board and the wireless bridge: 20 AWG (0.8128mm)
between the PD board and 5A custom circuits: 20 AWG (0.8128mm)

pneumatic valves: 24 AWG (0.5106mm)


The branch circuit may include intermediate elements such as COTS connectors, splices, COTS flexible/rolling/sliding contacts, and COTS slip rings, as long as the entire electrical pathway is via appropriately gauged conductors.

Wires that are originally attached to legal devices are part of the device and by default legal as supplied. Such wires are exempt from Rule [R44].

There's no such rule about Jaguars or Victors. The size of the wire depends solely on the breaker you use. You can even wire the Jaguar or Victor to a CIM using 18 AWG wire, as long as you use the appropriate breaker. I wouldn't recommend it, but the whole rule with the wire size is to protect the circuit (wires and power switching devices).

It is for the same reason, I recommend that team DO NOT TIN wires for use in the Wago terminal blocks. Any procedure that forces a round shape to anything inserted in the terminal reduces the contact area to a fraction of that achieved by bare wire. This significantly raises the contact resistance. For that reason I recommend you do not use solid wire or any of the terminations discussed above.

Agreed completely.

Tinning wires should not be done on the robot in any case that I can think of. If your team would like, you can solder ring/fork terminals, or the male/female disconnects, only after crimping the connection first. This gives you the best contact area (copper to tinned copper connector casing + copper to solder to tinned copper connector casing. Doing this will also remove any chance that it could vibrate out if soldered correctly. I've done this in the past, but I do not recommend it unless your team has plenty of time to do it. You have to remove the plastic sheathing on the connector, flux the connector, heat the entire connector to the solder's melting point, and flow the solder in the connector. It will take about 5 minutes of preparation, soldering, and cleaning up per connector. You should clean off the remaining flux as it will corrode the metal. You also need to insulate the connector, which would require (recommended) heat shrink, which should be slid on before soldering, or electrical tape.

For the solid wire. Here's my input: Don't use it on the robot at all. Solid core wire is not designed for mobile applications. It does not crimp well, and does not handle vibrations, hits, or bends very well at all. Leave it out of your design completely. Excessive bending will break the wire. If you were to use it on the robot, do not use it on anything that moves, as it will break down over the course of the competition.