Quote:
Originally Posted by sodizzle
[...] the sidecar shorted, and all the pwms completely melted, [..]
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Well, to me it looked like one of the pwms came out of its motor controller, and its ground pin came in contact with 12v somewhere. Probably the power to the motor controller itself. You can tell because the ground pin was blackened, the entire length of the single wire was melted, and the motor controller survived.
So, that's a lot of current going through that small wire, and through the ground of the sidecar. Neither of which are designed for it. The wire responded by heating up a ton and melting through the insulation. Since the pwms were in a bundle, it ended up destroying the entire bundle.
In the end, only one of them looked like the culprit (since only one wire had been burned in its entirety). Although I gathered that the sidecar was dislodged and had smashed into the chassis, I don't think that was the real cause.
Buuuut I'm not on the team and I didn't get a look at the damaged sidecar. This is just what I figure from what I saw of the damage to the wire bundle.
And theeeen there was the
second time you almost fell... If your rear bumper hadn't landed on the second level, it definitely would have fallen. It looked like only one of the grapple hooks was holding you, and neither of the ratcheting pieces.
I hope you get everything sorted out before your next competition. I was very impressed with your design. :D