so we just got our flywheel and intake on but now our drivetrain “2 motor” is slowly giving out. Before we added the intake and flywheel it worked just find, i think its just a weight problem, but idk. Any help?
To clarify, do only 2 motors drive your robot?
It’s possible for it to be a weight problem seeing how 2 motors aren’t that powerful for a full drive train but it could also be a wear and tear issue or the axels might have slipped out of the motors. Could you send a picture of your drive train?
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2 motor drivebase tend to lack torque required to move a robot with significant weight. Another culprit could be friction. Try and feel your motors, if they’re hot you have an overheating problem. I highly recommend switching to a 4 motor drive if not 6.
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It might be because your drivetrain has too much friction too. DId you check how good/bad the friction is?
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Yes
2 motor drivetrain
Yes i can get a photo of the bot tomorrow sometime if that works
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I think at least a 4 motor drive is definitely recommended with all of the robot to robot contact in VRC.
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Speaking from experience, if you want to have a competitive robot, then use at least 4 motors. 2 is a big no-no because they get overheated really easily. One of our old robots used 2 torque(red) motors and still couldn’t drive longer than a few minutes with everything on it.
I assume that since you designed it with two motors you want to use the other motors for the many functions in the game, and this backfires. Two motors can’t support all the weight of all the metal needed on your robot to fully compete. Just use a 4m drive - you’ll have plenty of motors left over.
You could potentially do this:
- 4m drivetrain
- 1m indexer
- 1m intake/roller mech
- 2m flywheel
- Pneumatic expansion
(and if you don’t have pneumatics, take a motor off the flywheel)
This all assumes you don’t ratchet anything.
Fairly simple allocation of motors.
Hope this helps
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Get some data on motor temperatures - just write them as numbers to the controller screen initially so you know which motor is your problem.
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More realistically, I should have said “which motor you are over-working; asking too much of”. The motor isn’t the problem: it’s what you asked it to do and how that’s the problem.
Your drivetrain is definitely overheating. Put at least 4 motors on it. I’ve had this problem in my early vex days. Try 333 or 360 drive, it should work well with a 4 motor.
Skip the photos. Check your motor temps, motor watts. Display to brain. You could even write code to capture data and average it.
motor free spinning in air: <1 watt
motor max load: 11 watts
motor max sustained load to not overheat in 2 mins: around 5w watts, depending on peak loading, initial temp, etc.
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