Quote:
Originally posted by Rickertsen2
First off 4AWG is perfectly legal. second of all do you have any clue how little the resistance of the wires is different by. Do you realize how little difference this actually makes. Its completely negligible and not worth worrying about. It provides no power advantage whatsoever.
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I wouldn't be so sure that it provides no advantage. 6 gauge wire has .47 Ohm per 1000 ft while 4 gauge wire has .24 Ohm per 1000 feet. Assuming a 10 foot length at 120 amps, 6 gauge wire will give you a voltage drop of .564 V while 4 gauge wire will give you a voltage drop of .288 V. That's a voltage differential of .276 V. That's a 2.3% loss of the 12 volts that are normally output by the battery.
Now, I'm sure there are very few people who are going to consider that a serious issue to the design of a robot. Obviously that .276 V difference probably won't be the difference between winning and losing. However, in some applications it can actually be significant. Don't discount the change out of hand. Remember, wires do have resistances (and inductances for that matter) and they shouldn't be completely ignored until analysis says that you can ignore them.
I'd also point out that FIRST has always specified a minimum wire size for safety reasons. At all times, teams have been able to use larger wire with no penalty. FIRST is concerned about safety with wiring in this case, not about competitive advantages.
Matt