Is using a two wheel drive with the back wheels connected to motors(traction) and the front two wheels (omni) not connected to a motor a bad idea? Does anyone have any advice on this? Thanks!
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Personally, I prefer a 4-motor drive. Not having the front wheels powered may make it easier to get stuck on a disk, but you could try gearing the front wheels together with the back so all 4 wheels are powered with only 2 motors.
The drive will work, but you really want at least 4 motors on your drive. Any less, and you will be extremely susceptible to defense, be unable to do any of your own pushing, and will most likely suffer from motor burnouts.
Also, it appears that you have 2 topics on this, try and refrain from making duplicate topics; if people have answers, they will post in the thread.
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Two motors are probably not enough for a ~15lb robot or any robot. It’ll be too slow, IMO. I recommend at least four motors. I would aim for 4 motors in your case with all 4 wheels being omni wheels. Additionally, I recommend that you connect each side of the drivetrain with chain or gears so the power is evenly distributed.
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That’s a really good idea, thank you, we will try this
Oh really? I didn’t realize, thanks for letting me know! How do you delete a thread? I’ll try to delete it. And thank you for your help
Other thread has been deleted 
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Long story short, yes.
Pros:
- Saves a couple of motors
Cons: - Can be pushed around very easily
- Isn’t able to do any pushing
- Will most likely be too slow
- Motors will overheat quicker
- Can’t push around a robot bigger than about 5 pounds well
Overall, a 4-motor drive is much better, and if you can a 6-motor drive is even better.
My team will be constructing a 6 motor drive as soon as we get our pneumatics in. This will be made to be able to push all other robots, or not be able to be pushed.
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Hello, so my team has a 2 motor drive train, and if you want my personal opinion. I do not recommend it. Because of how heavy our bot is, we keep having problems with our motors overheating and there’s no way we can fix it without remaking our entire bot so we just decided to let it be and used canned hair to cool it down. Another problem with 2 motor drivetrain is that you can’t turn very well, it is way easier to turn with a four motor drive train, meaning its easier to get the rollers and position yourself to shoot into the goal, Now we can do all those things, just not as well as a 4 motor drivetrain.
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My team’s pretty much exactly the same, except we use a 3rd strafing omni wheel in the middle of our bot, which makes us very good, mobility wise. We’re also a ~20lb robot, and we don’t really have issues with being slow. The only place we lack in speed is the strafe wheel, since it’s not geared and just directly driven. It works very well when the robot’s light, but in our current rendition, it’s not doing too hot.
Ah ok, I’m going to see if i can get my team to make the drivetrain with chains so the force is distrbuted evenly throughout that drivetrain so we don’t get stuck on something and can’t get out because our back wheels are in the air slightly.
What are you using (or planning on using) your other 6 motors for?
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well we have 2 for intake and 1 for roller, 1 for flywheel and 1 for expansion, we have yet to figure out what were going to use for our last motor
If you have 1 motor left and a 2 motor intake, then I feel you should probably just go with 1 motor intake and 4 motor drivetrain as 2 motor drivetrain is pretty unpractical and really not needed.
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Yeah, I agree, 2 motors aren’t necessary for intake. As well, you can connect your roller to your intake to save another motor.
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well, we don’t have enough space on our bot, we made the mistake of building the drivetrain around the intake and not building the intake around the drivetrain.
Coming from someone with a two-motor drive, I would say it is possible to run a two-motor drive. I found that the motors overheat after a couple of matches. My team is planning to switch to a four-motor drive when we get pneumatics and can free up some more motors.
To add on to what he is saying you can gear up your shooter to have a 1 motor shooter. You might have to make indexer fast by using a piston
Two motor drives can work however you are much more likely to get stuck on a disk, it is a much better idea to use a four or six motor drive.
Motor count won’t affect how easily you get stuck on discs. That is an issue based on your drive layout.
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