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Originally Posted by krhs_programmer
This saturday we were working on finishing our robot and we had to put heat shrink on a terminal going into the breaker box. So we took the wire of and put heat shrink on the terminal and put the terminal back on the breaker and one of our programmers torqued the bolt down. We he must have tightened it too much because the breaker selfdestructed. I took a picture of it but i have to wait till after the competition to develop it and then i will post it hear. There are no words to desribe what happened to this so don't ask for me to explain it.
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What you describe is a classic case of self inflicted wounds. I would bet that the case of the breaker was cracked during a previous operation and may have been just waiting for the next event. The breaker is manufactured such that the molded black material will hold the internal parts in alignment. If you crack the base the internals parts become dislodged. Check to see how you mount the breaker and you may find that the breaker sits across a frame member that flexes during robot motion or when hitting an obstacle. When the frame twists and bends, the breaker can't take the stress and small fractures will result. The next person to come along with a nutdriver or wrench can produce enough force to twist the electrical bolt which causes the case to shattter along the fractures caused earlier. If you can't be sure the frame won't flex than mount a small plate that the breaker can be attached to.