[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

We modeled how much air our pistons might use and went with 4 plastic air tanks in order to leave the compressor offboard. Most teams only leave the compressor offboard if they have weight problems, but I think current draw is a much more important reason to consider leaving it off.

This is consistent with my own observations. We had the same gearing/wheel size this year (HiGrip wheels instead of Colsons, though), and had no problems with the breaker except when the compressor was running.

Interestingly, we found that the compressor (and, by extension, any other power-consuming device on the robot) caused a twofold problem: not only does it draw current, but it lowers the effective voltage of the battery which can result in stalling a drive that would otherwise be traction-limited. This is crucially important, since if you're going to last in an extended pushing match you absolutely must be traction-limited.

Re: having less problems with the 40A drive breakers, we experienced this, too. Unfortunately, we found that unless you're exceedingly careful with current draw, at aggressive gearing going from 4 to 6 CIM SS basically results in swapping problems with the 40A breakers for problems with the main breaker. We plan to do a two-speed drive next season.