Quote:
Originally Posted by fox46
... At this level of competition we had the main breaker kick out near the end of four of our elimination matches.
... It was typical for the battery to be warm after our matches as well as all the 6AWG wiring... There were other inefficiencies which could have been improved to mitigate the breaker trips. First off, you've got to get the power from the battery to the PD board. Solder all your 6AWG terminals (torch, flux, solder, heatshrink)! The mentor in charge of wiring our machine refused to follow my advice and insisted crimped connections were sufficient. During elims on Currie, each of the terminals was a hotspot capable of burning you at the end of the match- any heat generation is a loss of power so here is improvement #1. Secondly, all the 6AWG wiring was warm- In the future it would be prudent to use 4AWG including higher capacity Anderson connectors ...Thirdly, the main breaker was cooking hot.
... Oversize the wiring if you can afford the weight so that you eliminate your losses due to heat.
|
Keep in mind if you oversize the wiring, solder the connections, shorten wires, etc. you're increasing current draw, not decreasing it, which will just make your main breaker get hotter. I'd think your 6AWG wiring and anything that was getting hot was saving your main breaker from tripping sooner! If you follow through with your plans to oversize the wiring to 4AWG, solder connections, etc. you may find you're tripping that main breaker more often.