Hello forum users! I’ve been having an issue with something frying motor controllers. My team codes a cortex with all motor ports set to reflect the value of joystick channel 3, so that we can test our punching launcher easily. However, we’ve noticed that after a couple of shots, all of the motors die out and one or more the motor controllers gets very hot and sometimes releases smoke. We’re not quite sure the reason of this, whether it is the cortex overloading the motor controllers with current, or something to do with too much torque on the motors (but we’re pretty sure it’s not a motor problem). Another thing is that even though we replace the cortex battery often, the battery notification light on the cortex turns yellow awfully quickly, much quicker than normal. I would much prefer to stop destroying motor controllers, so it would be great to hear your opinions on what the cause is and how to solve the problem.
The motor is more than likely shorting. Most likely caused by frayed insulator allowing the power to arc between wires causing the short. Look where the wires leave the motor itself and see if they are frayed.
These causes make a lot of sense, I think that when we go into work after the weekend, we’ll take a look at the wires leading from the cortex to the motors. To be honest, I think we’ve already broken a cortex or two as well … Anyways, thanks for the help guys!