what is the difference in a 4-motor vs 2- motor of the drivetrain?
2 motor drives are hardly ever used in competition and are usually frowned upon. 2 motor drives have many setbacks, like lack of speed and pushing power. IMO, the only real advantage to using a 2-motor drive is that you have 6 motors left for your other subsystems, but most of the time you wouldn’t even need 6 motors for them. 4 motor drives are much better than 2 motor drives; you get more speed, torque, and time before it overheats. It also leaves off 4 motors for your other systems which should be plenty. However, in most competitive situations (especially this year’s game), not even a 4 motor drive is enough and a 6 motor drive is highly recommended.
4 Likes
acceleration, helps move more weight, and im guessing also helps with torque.
Is there any way to explain this with math.
I think a better discussion would be 6-motor vs 4-motor 
1 Like
This is in IQ, where two motor drive is normal. Please actually pay attention to the post categories before telling IQ teams to make six motor drives.
1 Like
Side note (@4073B did a pretty good job explaining) - going off of your post history (using text code, building flywheels/catas, etc.), I assume you’re talking about VRC, not VEX IQ, right?
4 motor drive is the bare minimum that you need to be considered semi-competitive, as how others have said, you are pretty much limited to a 200rpm direct drive with no torque, and I would say that to be competitive, 6m drive is the way to go as it is not hard to make subsystems with only 2 motors
1 Like
you can still do okay with a 2 motor drive, I’ve been on a team that used a 2 motor drive one year and still made it to states. one kinda important thing with two motor drives is make sure you have your wheels securely attached because if you have 3 wheels fall off in a match (like we did one time) your robot will be very hard to control
I believe @Shark was referring to VIQ based on the tags. To answer the original question, the best answer is that with a 4 motor drive, you can increase the speed of your robot while still having the same amount of torque you would have with a 2 motor drive.
This is in IQ. 2 motor drive are almost neccary with the 6 motor limit. Even having a H-drive can be very limiting. What you said is defanitly true for VRC.
1 Like
Im in vex v5 community
1 Like
As someone who used a two-motor drive for OU, just don’t. It overheated about 5 minutes into driving, and wouldn’t allow us to cross the barrier. We made it to regionals somehow. We upgraded to a four-motor and it was so much better, almost never overheating. I do VRC.
1 Like
Sorry I am currently in worlds mode for vex VRC. However, let’s stay respectful as this is a simple mistake to be made. Many others have already made this simple mistake in this topic alone. The way that @BananaPi respectfully explained this topic is more effective.
I agree with the points made on this thread. 2 motor drives are very limited. When I was in IQ I leaned towards 4 motor drives. This was in simpler times, pitching in and slapshot. It depends on the game every year. I will try to come back to you after the iq game is out! Good luck at future events!
1 Like