Hey everybody,
We are having a problem with our flywheel. We are using a double flywheel to shoot our balls. Our gear ratio is 84 to 12 and 36 to 12. This gives us a 21:1 gearing ratio. On top of the second 12-tooth gear, we have a 5 inch wheel to propel the ball.
When we run the motor, the motor runs for about 7 seconds, then fuse trips. We have tried using different methods of relieving friction, but the problem still persists.
Does anybody have any suggestions on what we can do?
There have been a plethora of other threads with similar issues you are facing.
A 21:1 gear ratio is reasonable to shoot full court, especially with 5 inch wheels.
Basically, reduce friction by making sure everything is straight, you’re using bearing flats, the bearing flats are screwed in straight, the bearing flats are good ones, and if that doesen’t help, lubricate the bearings.
This is assuming you are using 4 motors total. A two motor shooter has been proven to be quite difficult to get working reliably.
We are planning to use a system like this one to keep the flywheel going as the motor ‘recharges’
Your cortex has two circuits that can only handle four amps each. The circuits are motor ports 1-5 and 6-10. If you split up the launcher motors to different circuits, it will not trip the cortex as easily. For example, if you have 4 launcher motors, you could put them in ports 4,5,6, and 7. This splits them evenly among two circuits. If it still trips and shuts off the motors, try adding a power expander. This adds a third circuit, and if it still trips something is majorly wrong with the flywheels (extreme friction, some sort of resistance). This solved all my teams problems. We had our flywheels in ports 2,3,4,5 and it did exactly what you are describing, and that is because you are drawing too much power from too few circuits. Hope this helps