Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankJ
A typical industrial power supply will current limit & chug happily along at a dead short so wire protection is not an issue.
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A robot battery, on the other hand, will happily dump hundreds of amps into a short. Protecting against wires catching on fire is definitely an issue.
There are only two things that can reasonably cause a robot circuit breaker to trip. One is a short in the wiring -- perhaps a connector has come loose and randomly touches something it shouldn't, or a mechanism has damaged the insulation. The breaker must be sized to keep the current from exceeding what the wires are safely capable of carrying. The other is a fault in whatever the wires are connected to -- either an electrical component has failed and is pulling much more current than it's designed to, or a motor is stalled because of a mechanical (or design) failure. In almost every case, the damage is what causes the overcurrent condition in the first place, so even a fast-acting fuse won't prevent it.