Power Distribution Block Grounding

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by Bleak

would it not be easier to wire the negatives from the victors to the excess negative terminals on the smaller fuse box.. its still creates the same circuit and the fuse block only has 6 positive terminals so why not put them to use

Although the Q&A has allowed it, I do not recommend this method for high current loads. The critical component in your robot is the RC, when it fails everything fails. The RC has a critical dropout voltage of 8 volts. When the input to the RC drops below that voltage, the RC goes into standby and disables all outputs during the brownout. When you sum currents in a wire the voltage drop across the wire increases. Even if you are using #6 AWG, a 1 foot long piece will drop 0.1 volts for every 200 amps. If you are running 4 Chalupa motor drive and they all stall (because you drove into the player station) that is 4 x 133 amps=532 amps. Add that to the series resistance of the battery and all of the main wiring and you now have a condition where the RC will drop out. By taking the high current returns back to the Distro block you have eliminated a few precious tenths of a volt that might keep you running continuous.