Quote:
Originally Posted by jwallace15
Ok. I understand what you (and IndySam) mean. However, I still wouldn't rely on the stickiness of electrical tape. Perhaps putting duct tape over the electrical tape?
Also, I don't use shrink wrap when securing power connections. I don't need to because the wiring I do conveniently goes into terminals. I don't use this on a robot either; my wiring remains stationary. I only use shrink wrap for wrapping wires when I solder two different wires together.
For a battery terminal? I agree that convenient access is important. But if you choose to go the role of electrical tape, I'd suggest securing the electrical tape with duct tape or something similar.
|
For most crimp terminals (the yellow/blue/red ones with the plastic housing), this is just fine, and it's what we do as well. In those cases, you're attaching the terminal to a Jaguar, Victor, or Spike, and the wiring is protected by 20/30/40A circuit breaker, should a short occur.
However, with the battery terminals, it's a different situation entirely. Even if none of your wire is exposed, the entire terminal is exposed, and it does NOT have any protection from a circuit breaker at that point.
So, if the terminals are exposed, you run a very dangerous risk. The battery can put out hundreds of amps (Al can probably give you a better upper-bound on the batteries than I can, he has more experience!). When surrounded by your typical aluminum robot with students using metal wrenches, pliers, and screw drivers, there is every possibility of shorting out the battery terminals if they aren't completely insulated. The result, in that case, is the terminals welding themselves to whatever shorted them. This is an extremely dangerous situation.
That is why inspectors are extremely cautious and strict when it comes to the battery terminals and the main power routing all the way up to the PD board. If you show up at one of my regionals and your batteries have uncovered terminals that I see, I will literally stand in your pit until you fix them. So please, make sure you completely insulate all connections that are NOT protected by a breaker, at minimum! These are the most dangerous connectors, and also generally the largest and most exposed ones on the robot!