Hey, so my team is building a shooter during the offseason which uses 2 775pros and 2 Talon SRXs. The talon’s need a 40A breaker since they tripped a 30A breaker, but we only have 7 40A ports on our PDP because one of the ports is broken (won’t hold the breaker for some reason). Since our drivetrain uses 4CIMs and 2 Mini-CIMs, we use six of these already and therefore don’t have enough ports to run the Talons. If I moved the two mini-CIMs on our drivetrain to 30A ports, would that damage anything? I need that extra space for our flywheel motors. What would be the downsides to switching our two mini-CIMs to 30A vs the current 40A breakers?
As long as the mini-CIMs are drawing less than 30 amps, you should be fine. The only downside is that you’ll have less trip current, which will limit time the motors can be stalled and possibly turning. Depending on the gearing and starting current draw, you may need to accelerate more slowly. The only possible damage is if you’re using a single use fuse, which cannot be reset and must be replaced when blown.
Replaced when the inspector spots it, you mean. R54 prohibits using non Snap Action breakers in the PDP.
You could probably get away with it for an offseason, though. Offseason inspectors aren’t as picky.
OP, have you considered contacting CTRE about the loose port? (Or about getting another PDP?)
If this is not for competition and you’re not using the current monitor on at least one of your 40A breakers, you can put an unmonitored eighth 40A breaker on a MAXI fuse holder. Equivalent parts are also available at auto parts shops. If you do this, I would wire the “extra” breaker in parallel with the PDP, and also protected by the main breaker.
If this is for competition, I agree that you should be OK doing what you proposed, though you might want to run current-limiting on the SRXs driving the mini-CIMs.
Another possibility (my recommendation) is to put the shooter on 30A breakers. A 775 pro is more likely to “protect” a 40A breaker than the other way around. Except for relatively short bursts during spin-up and while launching a flurry of fuel, the 775pros will be running close to a free speed condition, and those short bursts should not trip a 30A breaker.
If your shooter is tripping the 30A breaker routinely, I think you have something you need to check out on your shooter. Maybe you need a ramping function, maybe there’s some big mechanical inefficiency robbing your shooter, but that shouldn’t be happening.
That said, it’s probably just fine to put the miniCIMs on 30s. I would put the controllers on coast mode just in case.