[Al Skierkiewicz]

Jared,
In some ways, replacing a tripped breaker is a good practice. When that breaker trips under high loads, the load is actually fairly inductive. As such when the contacts open under load, there is some pitting of the contact that takes place. This pitting can raise the series resistance, ultimately raising the heat generated for a fixed current.
These breakers are unlike the protection breakers used in your home. Those generally will have a design that both protects long term high currents and sudden overloads. The trip curve for these breakers has a wide range because they are simple (cheap) and provide the coverage needed for our designs.
No one has mentioned this yet so let me add this to the mix. (Yes, I am the one who said the king had no clothes.) If I observe a team tripping the main breaker for any reason other than a catastrophic electrical failure, I would not consider them a good alliance partner. If we need you to play an entire match to win, why would we take the chance at a good robot who trips the main breaker in the hopes it won't happen in a critical match. Personally, I would rather have an OK robot who doesn't break over a great robot that sometimes sits idle in the middle of the playing field. When I see a team spraying their breaker, I have to wonder...are they covering up a design flaw or are they just being cautious?

For those who think spray is illegal can you tell me why you think that?
For the peltier, I would consider the rule about being accessible and visible would not be accomplished by putting the breaker in an insulated box.

For general knowledge... when you see one or more of us run out on the field when a robot stops during a match, the first thing we are looking at is the main breaker status, followed by indicators on the DSC, cRio, PD and radio. This sweep will give us an indication of what might have occurred. It is the standard list of checks that was formed following the Einstein weekend a few years ago. We want to be sure every team is given every chance to compete.