Does anyone else have this issue? Before our state tournament, we had practiced over and over on our home field for up to 10 minutes at a time with the same batteries and never had stalling problems. It was only plugged into the field controllers at the tournament where our drive stalled basically EVERY time. And we have thought about factors such as defensive play (no one ever did) and even changed our cortex out.
Oh and our drive is a 6 motor high speed hybrid base (tank in front, x drive in back). We do know that the x drive decreases torque, but don’t think that it should have this much of an effect on it.
Is there any anti-static spray on the field?
Did your entire robot stall? or just the drive?
Hmmm we experienced something similar at our competition yesterday. Interested in hearing what people have to say about this. 6 motor high speed on a 12 lb robot should have never tripped the ptc during normal match play.
Is your home field a real field that uses the foam tiles? Sounds like it is, but have to ask.
I think it’s a static issue. Here in Minnesota in the winter this is a huge problem and always happens in practice so we drag a grounding wire so that the static dissapates as it builds up.
In Hawaii so no.
Just the drive.
Yeah it’s extremely odd.
Yes.
Grounding wire? Do you have an extra wire attached to your chassis just for that purpose? Could a dragging motor wire cause this?
@Molokai Robotics we just used a stripped wire and have it drag on the ground so it dissipates the static that builds up in matches and when just practicing. Farmers do this on their combines when harvesting to keep dust off and static out of the machine.
@VexGod8110x Do you mind sharing a picture of how you mounted the stripped wire? I’m interested in trying it. Does it need to be pushed against the ground, or will gravity be enough to drag it on the ground? My concern with a just a wire, and nothing pushing it to the ground, is that it may get bent upward once the robot crosses the starting bar.
Then just put it on the back of your robot (this is assuming the back of your robot never goes over the starting bar; ours doesn’t, so it’s a great place to mount our position tracking wheel).
There is nothing in the rules preventing you doing it so it would be legal.
We use a vex wire, it seems to work well with us. We have an old one that is broken and messed up, with exposed wire.
That’s still modified. It may pass inspection at the local comps, but won’t fly at Worlds or the US open.
I’d love to see a proper static drag, but its not worth bending/breaking the rules to get one.
I can see your point. You are right.