My team runs two v5 motors on our tray bot drive train and they constantly over heat after 4 minutes. This is not a problem during games but affects how effective our practice time is. How do other teams deal with overheating motors?
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Do you have enough motors to make a four motor drivetrain?
Also what gear ratio are they?
A 4 motor drive 
But when they overheat, invert a can of compressed air and spray it on the motors. A really cold substance will come out
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you could have a small computer fan powered blowing over the motor while you practice to keep it cool.
5V 30mm fans powered off the legacy ports or perhaps 12V fans with a separate battery would probably work.
Edit:
Also, as someone who has a 2 motor drive bot, try to minimize hard acceleration and deceleration as this draws a lot more current and consequently make a lot more heat than when cruising along.
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We have a 1:1 gear ratio, and not enough motors to have a 4 wheel drive train.
You could switch to Torque cartridge but your drive would be significantly slower but would have more torque and less overheat.
@marinmersenne Is having 30 mm fans connected to the robot during the match legal?
No it is not, since it is not a non functional decoration, and it is not on the approved parts list
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depends on the gear ratio. Also are you putting to much strain on one motor? This could be a problem. If you end up overworking that motor it could go out at an unexpected time and screw with your whole robot. I would look into the gear ratio and think about using more motors. If you don’t have any motors left i suggest changing torque and ratios as i said before.
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We switched our 2 motor DT to torque and while it is very slow it hasn’t overheated since we’ve changed it and we’ve had like 15 minute practice sessions before.
Good im glad. I do wish you the best of luck and if anything else comes up with the motor check the inside. Sometimes it gets clogged off and needs clean. Many people don’t realize that can turn into an issue.
They are definitely illegal to run during competition matches but you might get away with leaving them on the robot during matches as non-functional decorations so long as they are off and don’t interfere with anything although you should check with the ref first.
Okay, thanks. I don’t think I’ll have the time to do this. We usually use canned air or a bag of ice (if we don’t have canned air). It is far from a perfect solution because of the smell and dripping water but it is better than having overheated motors.
If you are using ice, keep in mind that if the air inside the motors is humid and is cooled below room temperature, it could cause the moisture in it to condense out onto the electronics which given how sensitive V5 is to damage might be bad so perhaps just try to limit the time you ice it for.
A hair dryer (with cold air setting) might be a cheaper alternative to canned air if you’re going to be cooling often during a competition.
I don’t deny your claim, but I’ve repeatedly frozen my motors countless times (and when we had a lift bot, we had to cool our claw to the point the case froze) and have yet to encounter a problem. I feel just because ice can drip water, use canned air if you want to cool the motors quickly. However, PLEASE only use in a well ventilated area and move away after spraying (it smells horrible). To get the air to work a tad bit better, we found not reading the warning label helps (flip the can upside down and spray the liquid directly). DO NOT get any liquid on yourself though! My partner and I almost got frostbite from not being careful once. Canned air is equipment, always use with caution.
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Thank you for the solutions. This really helped our team. We have a comp. Saturday and were still unsure how we were going to keep our lift motors from overheating.
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