Hey guys I bought a new 269 motor from Vex and I’m wondering what the black thing on the 269 motors cable is. Its not the motor controller 29- that’s in a different box. Is this just part of the packaging? I don’t want to damage anything.
Thanks.
It’s a ferrite bead to reduce EMI. It was probably needed for CE certification.
The little black box is a wire/power converter… It is most definitely not the motor controller… I think it is just a power modulator? Maybe?
But you are right… It’s not something you want to mess with… (i.e. modifying electronics is illegal…)
I believe it’s a Ferrite bead, the 393 motors have them too. I wouldn’t mess with it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrite_bead
we took them off all of our motors at the start of round up because they are so so so so heavy… but after our first batch we decided it would be a good idea to keep them on - i think its something to stop electric shocks
Oh come on, it’s just to stop RF emissions. No harm will come if you remove them but there’s really no need to, just ignore it.
Someone should seriously create a Q&A asking if removing that thing is considered “altering” the motor and thus illegal. I bet I know the answer… 
-Cody
I was going to say – I wouldn’t think removing that would/should even be legal. 
~Jordan
It also stops inspectors from disqualifying your robot for illegal modifications of VEX electronics.
i.e. DON’T MODIFY YOUR ELECTRONICS!
seems like a point that VEX likes to make…