Why not integrate Jaguars with Diodes?

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by EricVanWyk

Crowbars are things like shunt diodes that short out the power input in an attempt to blow an upstream fuse before exploding. These make me nervous: It is a protection against incorrect wiring that assumes that the rest of the robot is correctly wired. In particularly badly wired robots, they can make the situation worse. I typically use crowbar protection in more controlled environments.

I was actually just toying with this solution last night in our lab, given the rather unnerving ratcheting click noise coming from the PD board, I thought it served as a fair indicator to turn the robot off immediately while saving the Jaguar, I also used a fairly beefy power rectifier to do it, so heat wasn't an immediate concern. I'm more concerned with the effects of repeatedly shorting the thing out rapidly.

Just curious, because I'm sure there's an angle I haven't thought of, what kind of incorrect wiring are you anticipating causing a crowbar to be an ineffective solution?

(I am mostly toying with idea out of build season curiosity, since I don't believe the current electrical rules would permit such a protection circuit in competition use).

Matt