Team Update #11

[Teched3]

Originally Posted by Bill_B

It is quite possible, likely even, that GDC had no idea how these motors would react to the devil-may-care "design" work done by our enthusiastic high-schoolers. Can you give us more details about the minifuses? I would put them into my test machinery regardless of competition legality, then remove them for competition.

As far as I can tell the biggest oversight was the failure to include motor leads at all in the first choice parts kit. They ran down the list of needed motor stuff to add to the resource kit but fell short of even the standard connection method. That connector is at least designed for the machine. No visible strain relief in it and no way to secure it to the motor either. I get the idea that it's an afterthought from Tetrix.

You can pick up minifuse holders and fuses at any car stereo shop or auto parts store. I would suggest you start out with 2 - 2.5 amp fuses, and have spares on hand. They originally had the less expensive motor leads listed, then added the thermal protection leads (at about 4x's the price), which do not react fast enough to protect the motors. Remember, these components are used in robots that run across the floor. That is a whole lot different than using them to climb a 10 ft. vertical pole. In addition, these components are"new" to even experienced FTC teams for the same reason.