Are ESC caps and/or TVS diodes overkill for US Antweight (1lb) robots?
I have a decently hard-hitting, belt-driven weapon on my antweight robot and at an event this last weekend, in one of my fights I struck the opponent's weapon and an immediate plume of smoke emitted from my weapon motor, which was then down for the remainder of the match.
When I got the bot apart in the pits afterwards, it appeared there was melting/shorting at all three phase wires where they start their windings.
My guess is that the weapon strike caused a very brief but intense overcurrent/overvoltage that melted through the enamel and shorted the stator wires.
I run the smooth-side of an s3m belt to drive my weapon, to try to allow for some slip, but it is possible that the tension was a little on the tighter side, this has not really been a problem before now however.
Would adding a capacitor to the power pads on the ESC offer any benefit here, or cap+tvs diode for spikes?
I know it is pretty common or recommended for beetleweight weapons/6S builds, but hadn't really seen it mentioned anywhere for antweights.
I use the 45A ReadyToSky ESC to drive my weapon motor, which is a decently high kv 2207 that I've been pretty happy with lately.
Thanks!