I would like to get some advise from you guys . Will the motor spoil if we hold the controller up even though it has reached it max ?
If you overdrive your motors for a long period of time, the motor controller or motor itself will eventually burn out. However, normal VEX matches are only ~2 minutes long in total, so the chance of one burning out during competition is small.
I mean , during the 1.30minute driver control , in order for an arm or any machism to be at a height , the driver have to hold the motor , will this spoil the motor? or cause any damage?
As a general rule of thumb, if your motor is being supplied power (being told to run by the program), but it is not moving (because the wheels are locked up, or the arm is too heavy, or anything), then there is a chance that the motor will burn out.
I did this last year and it worked well and we never overheated on those motors. With a longer arm this year though they do have a higher chance of overheating.
However, I have never seen a motor been run so hard, that it gets damaged, or breaks.
Well, I have seen broken internal gears, but I meant I have never seen the electronics damaged or broken.
Because of the height difference this year, I think there will be a higher chance of motors burning out. Not very high but higher than last year.
If you gear it right, you will not have that problem.
Last year, we did not really have a problem with the arm motors burning out.
Even when holding 4-5 rings, though it did go slower.
We always use rubber bands to remove a lot of the weight of the arm. However with objects that are so heavy, there will still be quite a bit of torque on the motors when holding the arm up.
Gear your arm 1:7 (for torque) and test it beforehand to make sure you don’t burn out any motors.
I agree with the rubber band. Or tubing.
Both would work, but rubber bands is better.
I think we need to clarify the comments about motors “burning out”. The VEX motors use polymer PTC protection devices which will trip before damage is caused to the motor. For the 269 motor, which has a stall current of 2.6A, the PTC will trip if the current is around 1.5A for a few seconds. The PTC trip value is not fixed, with more current they will trip sooner, they also will trip sooner as they heat up which is why the motors fail sooner when hot.