Any advice on how to keep motors from overheating? Ours keep doing this and we arent sure how to fix it, but it will definitely be a problem once we start competing.
Motors overheat when the design requires them to work too hard. Without looking specifically at your design, consider if the gearing can be changed (either internally or externally), or if counterbalancing can be implemented, either by rubber bands or by elastic tubing. This will reduce the heating of your motors.
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its mostly just our drive motors, we have 4 ( 2 on each side). one is directly connected to the wheel, and the other is connected to a chain.
How long are you driving for before they overheat?
maybe like 5 -7 minutes
Friction is not your friend - sounds like a build quality issue - is your drive train structure square or is the structure forcing the shafts to rub against bearing flats…
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We’ll, that’s longer than the 2 minutes of competition, so you might be OK…just annoyed during practice. When building a machine for a competition (consider a race car, for example) we sometimes go beyond the design capabilities for continuous operation…(consider the race car again, and how often the engine gets a rebuild). BUT: if you’re doing this kind of limited duty cycle, you should know you’re doing it. The fact that you’re asking about it, though, tells us that you’re not expecting a limited duty cycle, so the race-car example doesn’t apply to you. Follow lacsap’s advice and look for build quality!
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What gear ratio is it? Can you send pictures?
Did you use bearing flats?
No metal touching metal?
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Just note that if its too hot out or left in the sun the motors will over heat a lot faster than normal.
If you take of the motors and try to spin the wheels they should free spin for quite a while