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Unread 20-02-2008, 22:47
de_ de_ is offline
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AKA: Dave Edwards
FRC #1310 (Runnymede Robotics)
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Rookie Year: 2005
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Posts: 256
de_ is a jewel in the roughde_ is a jewel in the roughde_ is a jewel in the roughde_ is a jewel in the rough
Compressor blowing spike fuses or melting spikes

We are running our compressor hard (ie pretty well continously during a 2 minute game). We blew 2 - 20 amp fuses in the spike, melted a connection terminal off a spike pcb and I believe killed a spike outright over the weekend.

The compressor is rated at ~10 amps. I could not find its rated duty cycle but I would hope it is good for 2 minutes. We will change to a breaker but we are concerned it is apparently drawing so much more current than its rated 10 amps. We do realize starting currents with a 100psi back pressure may be significant. We did increase the supply wire size to 12g to reduce voltage loss.

Anyone know of
1) compressor infant mortality failures ?
2) any material benefit to add a cooling fan (its got one built in side I believe)
3) what its duty cycle rating is ?
4) what could its startup current be when it restarts at 100psi (as opposed to starting with no back pressure) ?