Tripping 120Amp

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally posted by Rickertsen2
First off 4AWG is perfectly legal. second of all do you have any clue how little the resistance of the wires is different by. Do you realize how little difference this actually makes. Its completely negligible and not worth worrying about. It provides no power advantage whatsoever.

Robot Rules...
"3.2 Wiring the Robot Controls
3.2.1 Power Distribution Circuits
...The battery, 120A main circuit breaker/disconnect switch, and the three provided power distribution-circuit breaker panels may only be connected with the AWG #6 wire provided in
the kit. Protect all branch circuits by circuit breakers as shown in the table below."
So, #4AWG is illegal. As to the change in resistance, many teams use long lengths of #6 wire and even longer runs of #10 to the speed controllers and motors. I think that in many cases these long runs add sufficient resistance to keep teams from getting into trouble by limiting the current in the system as a whole. The difference in resistance of one foot of wire is not that much but when you start adding it all up and passing 200 or more amps through it, the voltage drop is smaller in the #4.