Quote:
Originally posted by D.J. Fluck
That happened to 190, the WPI team at some pre-season competition. Im not sure of the details, but they smelled smoke from what I heard and they took a look and it was like that. I think securing those anderson connectors is fine, but a zip tie could be hazardous if you need to break that connection for some reason or another
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It happened at the UTC scrimmage. All we knew is that our battery voltage on the OI suddenly dropped to 6.4 volts during one of our matches, and our robot stopped dead in its tracks. When it came back to the pit, there was a definate smell of smoke, but it took us a while to find the source.
We hadn't been overdriving the robot, but we did have one match every 15 minutes or so. Our battery was secure, and no stress was on the connector (although we did have our battery get disconnected in the next match because the replacement connector we used had wires that were too short). We didn't have any zip ties or velcro holding the connector together.
An interesting thing to note is that the connector was actually welded, and getting it apart required about five minutes, six different people trying, and four Leatherman's (and that is after taking it off the robot). Having a ziptie on there wouldn't have made it any more difficult to separate, and there is no way we could have sepatated it in an emergency (and we would've ended up with severe burns if we had tried).
If putting a zip tie on the connector could prevent this kind of thing from happening (assuming that the connector separated, causing an arc), I think it is a safty benefit, not a hazard. Besides, the circuit breaker is always there to open the circuit, if needed.