Update battery lead specifications and wire guidelines for 2025/2026 rule changes

[isubsmith]

Updated recommendations for battery leads and wire materials, including notes on wire length and CCA usage from 2025/2026 rule changes

[sciencewhiz]

It's my understanding that FIRST only made CCA legal to avoid teams having to rewire at inspection if they used the wrong wire. Thus I think I'd prefer to keep CCA in the do not use to absolutely minimize the number of teams that end up using it

[isubsmith]

I would also prefer to keep it in the do not use category and certainly do not want to encourage using it. There was a lot of back and forth on the LRI slack about it and it is considered fully legal now though. I could rewrite to leave most of the original text and just add a note or warning section that says it is allowed but shouldn't be used? I don't want people to see it is allowed in the manual and buy it because it's cheaper. Thoughts?ThanksOn Mar 23, 2026 11:43 PM, sciencewhiz ***@***.***> wrote: @sciencewhiz commented on this pull request. In source/docs/hardware/hardware-basics/robot-battery.rst:

#### Lead Cables

…

-Tinned, annealed, or coated copper is allowed. Do not use CCA (copper clad aluminum), aluminum, or other non-copper base metal. The conductor metal is normally printed on the outside of the insulation with the other cable ratings. +Tinned, annealed, coated copper, or CCA (copper clad aluminum) is allowed. Do not use regular aluminum wire, or other non-copper base metal. The conductor metal is normally printed on the outside of the insulation with the other cable ratings. It's my understanding that FIRST only made CCA legal to avoid teams having to rewire at inspection if they used the wrong wire. Thus I think I'd prefer to keep CCA in the do not use to absolutely minimize the number of teams that end up using it —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>