Are we allowed to make a device that pushes it back to the “on” position if it shuts itself off due to an overload?
Obviously the device would not be powered by electricity and would be some kind of spring of some sort.
-anton
Spring-loaded cylinder, perhaps? I don’t know if it;s legal, but it would work.
I would imagine, that it wouldn’t be legal as it would defeat a safety device, but even if you could, remember that when a circuit breaker trips, it places the lever inbetween the on and off state. You then need to move the lever completely into the off state and back in to the on state which is a double motion after the fact that you have lost your power.
If your robot is going to constantly draw more than 60 amps, say 100-120 amps, couldn’t you put a heat sink or a fan blowing in the circuit breaker? Would that be legal?
And also, could you put a breaker board with 3 x 20 amp auto-resetting breakers in serial between the 60 amp and your main control board. So the power would flow from the 60 amp breaker to the board with 3 x 20 amp breakers, which are connected to each other in parallel, and then connected in serial to the ‘main’ circuit breaker board. (It would not be legal with 30 amp breakers because they are only for speed controllers) I’m pretty sure that is possible and it ‘should’ trip before the 60 amp breaker trips, telling you that the robot is drawing too much power.
BTW: This would only work if the 3, 20 amp breakers have the same resistance. And I would not try it unless I ask FIRST, first.
To your first question, probably, but I don’t think it would accomplish too much. The circuit breaker doesn’t have much air flow through it to begin with.
To your second question, the answer is no. It’s been done in the past but FIRST basically declared it illegal.
Matt
The idea of having something turn the breaker on if it gets turned off is pretty easy to do with this year’s kit.
All that is really needed is the Parker manual 2-way plug valve (see the pneumantics kit list #PV609-2) and a cylinder.
I think you could have the motion of the breaker’s switch going from 0N to OFF activate this manual valve. You could then have a cylinder push the switch back to the ON position.
If during a match the breaker tripped, poof, poof, your back in business.
You would need something to disable this feature so you could actually turn power off when you really wanted power off, but I should think that would be too hard.
Would it be legal? I suppose that it would be. I know of no rule regarding this.
Of course, doing this is slightly dangerous on two counts. First because you are putting an air cylinder right where your fingers are likely to be very often. Second because if you have a true need for the breaker to trip, the breaker would keep getting turned back on (not exactly the textbook workings of a safety device!). Are these risks beyond the normal risks associated with FIRST type activities? I suppose not.
More importantly, is all this worth the bother? I think not. We have always had the ability to pull more current than the breaker was rated for. To my knowledge, no team has had any significant problems with the breaker tripping falsely.
I doubt that teams will have such problems this year either.
Joe J.