Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate Laverdure
Fine, but aren't we're talking about an application (powering the compressor) where self resetting circuit breakers have been used successfully for some time?
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With different hardware, yes. From what I've been told in the past, Vex (the makers of the spike relay) did specific testing with a circuit breaker to validate it as safe before FIRST allowed it to be used for compressors in the rules. That's the only reason teams were allowed to replace the provided fuse with a breaker for use with compressors.
For FRC usage, breakers, in general, are present to protect the wiring, not the components attached to that wiring. For this 20A fuse, it could protect the PCM from over-current if (for example) something gets shorted out... but my guess would be that the fuse is there to prevent the PDP from burning out by drawing too much current from those outputs. It's probably there to protect against a short much more than to protect downstream circuitry.