rg12 said:
wesnewell said:
It can take as many volts as you want as long as you don't exceed 10W through it.
I'm not an expert but at 5ohms 100v it means a ton more than 10w but I'm talking about 3 seconds, just to measure the drop.
Solcar said:
I'm just going to give my answer without looking at the others, so my perspective is fresh.
P = V²/R
= 100²/5
= 10000/5
=2000w
I think that your resistor will burn out before three seconds at that power level since that is 200 times the power rating.

I would have a completely different approach to solve this problem
Whatever if 100V or 10 V... What matters is not the voltage, but the "
Voltage across the resistor"... In other words, it's the "
Voltage drop" at a given current that matters rather than the voltage : dV.... not V... Please try to remember this nuance. Google "Voltage across resistor" whenever you can't remember this.
Also the heat lost is dP rather than P (P is the total power used in the circuit (for exemple, including the power drawn by the controller).... dP is the part of the power that's lost in the circuit in the form of heat dissipated through the resistor).
So you defined dP = 10 W and R = 5 Ohms.... The circuit has an EMF (electromotive force) of 100V.
Knowing that dP = R x I^2 and that dV = R x I and also that dP = dV x I,
You can see that 100V does not matter.
Say you want to run your 5 Ohms resistor at its maximum 10 Watts rating (dP=10W).... What will be the voltage drop (the voltage across the resistor) ???
Well dP = R x I^2....
So at maximum rating of resistor (Max 10W).... The max current (I) rating can be calculated :
I^2 = dP/R = 10W / 5 Ohms
I^2 = 2
I = Square root of 2
So (doing square root), maximum current
I = 1.414 Amps.... That's the figure you need to worry about. Don't exceed 10W also means don't exceed that 1.414 A rating (assuming the resistor is exactly 5 ohms value).
Now since dP = dV x I
then dV = dP / I
So
voltage drop (aka
voltage across the resistor) is dV = 10W / 1.414 A
dV = 7.07 Volts of drop..
What this means is with all other parameters being constant (dP = 10W ; R = 5 Ohms, and so I = 1.414A)
If you run your circuit with a 10 V battery, the resistor will take 7.07 V off.... You will have 2.93V left for your motor/controller
If you run your circuit with a 100 V battery, the resitor will still take 7.07 V off... You will have 92.93 V left for your motor/controller
If you run your circuit with a 1 000 V battery, the resistor will still still take 7.07 V off... You will have 992.93 V left for you motor/controller
If you run your circuit with a 10 000 V battery, the resistor will still still still take 7.07 V off... You will have 9 992.93 V left for your motor/controller.
If you run your circuit with a 100 000 V battery, the resistor will still still still still take 7.07 V off... You will have 99 992.93 V left for your motor/controller.
Now... Do you see how the resistor really really doesn't care at all about the voltage of the battery... The resitor will only care about stealing 7.07V to whaterver voltage is going through, period. You can run 3 volt or 100000V, it just doen't care.
But run 2 amps on that "5 Ohms-10W" rated resistor (once again whater voltage you choose don't matter), and you will burn it very quickly (2A @ 5 Ohms means 20W, which is well above the 10W rating... Once again, I used the dP = R x I^2 formula)
In conclusion, whatever the voltage your battery, If you want to do testing with a 5 Ohms resistor,
you need to know what maximum load you want to be testing with (10A ? 50A ? 1.414A ?). That is, you need to know what's the maximum current that you will draw from your battery during those testings.
If you want a 5 Ohm resistor to handle 10 Amps, well dP = R x I^2
so you need a 500 Watt rating at least on that 5 ohm resistor.
If you want do your testing at a maximum of 50A, once again dP = R x I^2
You need a 12500 Watt rating at least on that 5 ohm resistor.
Matador.