Using the Cortex and a VICTOR 884 to Control a 12V DC Motor

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
#1

The standard VEX motors operate on roughly 5V DC, so in order for the Cortex or PIC to control a larger motor, a second power supply must be used. However, the VEX Cortex and PIC both regulate the voltage they provide the motors, so simply hooking up a larger power supply won’t work – and doing so would risk damaging the actual microcontroller.

To solve this problem, we can introduce an intermediary component – a VICTOR 884 Speed Controller. The VICTOR sits between the 12V power supply, VEX microcontroller, and 12V DC motor, isolating the microcontroller from the high voltage. Check out instructions for hooking up the VICTOR, along with a video here: http://www.robotc.net/blog/?p=745

#2

Great tutorial.

We have been using our VEX Cortex systems to control our FRC robots.

Maybe one day FIRST will come back to IFI for affordable electronics.

#3

Nice work! Very cool robot design.

Do you also use the Cortex with the Jaguar motor controllers, or only the Victors?

#4

We used both without too much trouble. In this video we mainly used Victors.

I’m interested in teams that have done similar efforts. I was amazed at how quickly the students could understand the general wiring scheme of a Big robot without instructions.

#5

We’ve also used both Jags and Victors with VEX controls. I’m a fan of the Victors due to the smaller footprint, so we have stacks of them that I grab first.

#6