reverse-voltage protection

[kamocat]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Marshall,
I would be willing to bet that the majority of dead controllers due to wiring errors are for the input and output to be reversed. Remember that the HEX power FETs that are used have a diode across the source drain leads that is a fall out of the manufacturing process. The series diode would still need to handle 129 amps, the stall current of the current CIM motors. Schottky diodes have a lower forward voltage drop but are too expensive and large to be included in the controller design. We use the smaller Anderson connectors for all/most of our motor connections. The 45 amp version handles the CIM motors just fine. There is not enough heating in a two minute match to damage these connectors provided that the correct crimper is used to terminate the wire.

From personal experience, I've only wired up power to the wrong side once. That happened to be a Victor. Interestingly, the MOSFETs were the only damaged parts. (They didn't blow until I put significant current through them by actually trying to run the motor) I've replaced those with MOSFETs from Jaguar's I've fried, and it seems to work fine now.

We do use pigtails with mini-anderson connectors on them. On the output side, we actually use a different color (white and green), where as we use red and black on the supply side.
Most of the errors come from cheesed-together systems that haven't been thoroughly checked. I have a small 6 Amp-Hour battery that has a tendency to get reversed (either at the Anderson Powerpole or the push-ons to the battery terminals).
To date, I have 3 Jaguars I use for physical mock-ups. They've all been fried by reversed voltage (either by me or by somebody else on the team).