Hi - my robot has a four motor drive train with a two-motor, two-arm lift, and everything works just fine for the first 2-3 times the lift is used, but around the third time, the lift’s motors just give out and won’t work anymore. I know it shouldn’t be something with the code, because it’s just a loop that resets values each time based on output from a controller, and everything works smoothly until those two motors stop. The four motors used in the drivetrain are unaffected and continue to work as intended long after the lift motors fail, which just made the problem more confusing. Attached are pictures of the robot and lift-motors’ set up, so if anyone has any suggestions, possible solutions, or questions, please let me know!
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the motors could be overheating, are they trying to move? or do they just completely stop moving?
also, when you stop and start the program do they work again?
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This sounds like a build quality issue. Your images did not attach in the OP, can you send them please?
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Yes, they are trying to move, they just can’t emit any force (they sort of just jitter, trying to move, but not getting very far)
I’ve tried cooling the motors, but they still won’t do anything, and when I stopped and restarted the program, the lift would just stay in that stopped/small movements state - it’s like it needs a certain amount of time to get going again
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yeah, that sounds like overheating, the motors can take a while to cool down, what cartridge is in the motor?
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we use that same ratio with red cartages (high torque), and we had some overheating problems after a while, try reducing the ratio
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Bearing flats would help
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The motor cartridges are 36:1
we found that reducing the speed of the lift (75% power) helped reduce overheating
that is interesting, we have like the exact same lift on our robot lol
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It’s currently at 50% though because I thought that could help also I needed it slower
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Nice! I bet you’re definitely not the only one
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like @dodgedoodle said, add bearing flats (also called flat bearings), and reduce friction as much as possible
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