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The Slow-Blow Circuit Breakers an Issue?
According to Jim Zondag, "at room temperature, #14 stranded pvc insulated wire is rated for 36A continuous." And because we limit current in all circuits to 30A, there should be very little risk of insulation melting, fires, or other safety concerns. Since you had it happen, I have to wonder if the slow-blow breakers are not taking a little too long to trip off in short-circuit situations. We went to the slow-blow breakers because the fuses were melting too quickly and ruining too many matches.
Jim points out that another issue is "the power loss due to voltage drop. A #10 wire has less than half the Resistance/Length rating compared to #14, so this will result in a
small reduction in input power to the motors if you use the smaller wire. Given the short wire lengths on an OCCRA robot, this should be nearly irrelevant. I would guess that the total contact resistance in most robot systems is higher than the wiring resistance anyway." We may be going to the larger wire next year, but for now it's an option.
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