I have one team that has built a choo choo catapult for rapid relay. It works great but it drains the battery after 2 or 3 shots. I have no advice for them for this issue. Anyone else run into this problem? How can we fix it? I have included some pics of what they built so far.
As someone who has built choo-choos and other launchers, I dont see how it could be possible that that is the mechanism responsible for draining the battery. It appears you are using a 2 motor 3 to 5 torque ratio, which reduces strain on the motors, AND you are using 2 motors. I would diagnose other problems such as the battery, brain, or interface between them if I were you.
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Is this a Generation 1 or Generation 2 battery ? How old is the battery ? It just sounds like the battery has reached end of life.
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Gen 1 or 2 battery? If it’s Gen 1, I would bet the battery’s capacity is shot; it happened after a while to those. If it’s Gen 2, then I would think you might have a bad battery, as those have had great capacity so far.
5:3 gear ratio isn’t going to generate max torque, so you’re going to run into some decent inefficiency. Better would be a 5:1 (12t:60t), but it will be slower cycle time. I don’t think that is going to be as big an issue this season as compared to Pitching In.
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i had some similar issues when i competed in iq some 4 odd years ago. it was alwas just hte detirioration of the IQ batterys life. if you want it to require less juice you could try to increase the gear ratio to make it torqueir but that means its gonna wind back slower.
back in the day we tried to extend the batteries life by zapping them with a car battery to try and break up the crystals inside or smthing that according to the internet was why nickel cadium batteries life was detiriorating and was supposed to hel resotre some battery life. it did not really work.
Bolding mine.
For the love of all things in the world, please DO NOT DO THIS to VEXIQ battery packs. The fireball will be amazing, and in the case of lithium-ion or Li-ion battery on the V2, the fire will burn very hot and a very long time.
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gen 1 brain, 2022 on battery
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Try making the gear conneccted to the choo choo smaller. that will help with the strain on the motors.
also do you smell burning in the motors? they might be burned
If you use a ratchet to hold the gears in place you can have the motors in coast mode. That will save your motors and batteries.