Y-Cabling

So is there a con with using a Y-cable to keep your drive motors together? I feel that there isn’t much but it’s just nice to know from a much more experienced crowd.

Also, would wiring a Y cable to a power expander that is hooked up with another Y cable powering a flywheel be a violation of the rule that says you cannot Y off of a Y?

I believe we tried that last year but, I don’t think it helped. More of the problem with a drive going crooked would be friction on the shaft or a bad motor. The y-cable would not help that.

That would be a violation, yes.

I emphasized the relevant bits to the question. If do as you suggest, you would be controlling 4 motors with one motor port. It specifically says you cannot control more than 2 motors with the same port.

It may be useful to add the detail that our drive is geared together in a 2:1 ratio.

Ok so, if you had all 4 motors on one port you will not be able to turn. Last I checked that was a good functionality to have on your robot :slight_smile: .

Really? Even if it was through a power expander?

No, just because they’re all controlled together. You can’t separate control at the ends of a y cable.

I’m assuming this means that the motors are geared to the wheels at 2:1, not the motors geared 2:1 to each other. That would be bad for the motors, and you would probably experience a lot of stalling.
Also, you can’t power 4 motors off of one Cortex port, at least in VRC. The Cortex has 2 4A circuit breakers, so 4 motors on one of them would trip that breaker once they experience much resistance, like a pushing battle or spinning up a flywheel. That same reason is why my team puts 2 drive motors, 2 flywheel motors, and 1 intake motor on each breaker (ports 1-5 and 6-10). Chances are, the flywheel motors won’t be drawing a lot of current when our drive is, and vise versa, and if our intake motor needs enough current to matter, then we need to rebuild it and make it need less torque.

No. I didn’t state it clearly, sorry about all the confusion that was caused by my lack of eloquence. :frowning:

For the Y-cabling the drive, would it be advisable provided that they are geared together?

The question about the Y-cabling twice through a power expander was another separate question that was a tangent topic. :slight_smile:

Yeah that is what I was going to go for my current ports set up is

Port 1 Intake front
Port 2 Y-Cabled right drive/Drive right 1
Port 3 Empty/Drive right2
Port 4 Flywheel
Port 5 Flywheel
Port 6 Flywheel
Port 7 Flywheel
Port 8 Empty/Drive left 1
Port 9 Y-Cabled left drive/Drive left
Port 10 Intake back

Ports 4-7 are wired through a power expander.

Looking at this now makes me realize that if I trip a circuit breaker, I would lose an entire side of drive.

I wouldn’t put all 4 motors for the fly wheel on the power expander since that is only 1 circuit. I put two on power ex pander and two on cortex 6-10 the last time I did it.

I keep forgetting to mention that I have a 6 motor bullet-bot. :slight_smile:

We have been running 4 flywheel motors off of our power expander all year and have yet to trip a breaker. Just wanted to throw that info out there.