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Unread 08-11-2016, 20:57
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AKA: Gus Michel II
FRC #3946 (Tiger Robotics)
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Re: Suicide Cables Safe for Motors?

We have done this, though always where we were confident that something would slip before things would break or blue smoke would be released. We actually used something like this on our air cannon for a game early this football season, but we did have circuit breakers (a "Stinger" 4 circuit MAXI fuse block) and switched the motors with pushbutton automotive starter switches (which are difficult enough to operate that they serve as a built-in dead man switch). As light as our air cannon is this year, it would require a gifted act of sabotage or multiple failure modes worthy of Wiley Coyote or the stooges to stall our drive motors. Whether the switches would smoke or the breakers would trip first is probably a valid question.

Edit (addition):
Quote:
Originally Posted by asid61 View Post
As far as competition goes I haven't seen a team every connect motor to power without a speed controller in between. That seems like a recipe for disaster.
Sure, all the time. Spike relay modules to switch automotive & PG motors on and off.
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Last edited by GeeTwo : 09-11-2016 at 09:02.
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