FP power change?

[lemiant]

Were the old fisher price motors weaker? How can I tell them apart?

[R.C.]

Depends by what you mean old?

And look at the part number. The 2011 and 2010 FP motors are different, check out AM's website for detailed info.

-RC

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Alex,
The FP motors changed design and output power at least three times when supplied to FRC KOP. Check under the motors sub forum for discussions and part numbers. They all look very similar so you need to check the part number. I know one year they went from 90+ amps stall current to something like 63.

[Tristan Lall]

I know of many different Fisher-Price RS-550-sized motors—at least 6 were used in various years, and they've rarely been legally interchangeable. (12 V power output varies by a factor of about 2.5 between the least- and most-powerful ones.) Also, there are many BaneBots motors that look similar. Plus there are other manufacturers' products on the market.

In terms of identification, you can look at:
Fisher-Price model number
OEM model number (Johnson or Mabuchi, maybe others in the future)
Label or printing style
Manufacturer's logo
Style and number of vent holes
Style of end cap
Plating colour and finish
Quality of deep-drawn metal case
Shaft style and length
Fan blades
Armature style
Terminals
Flux yoke (presence/absence/style)

It's difficult to explain exactly what the individual differences are without pictures or samples. But if you can compare motors based on those points of reference, it's pretty straightforward to identify legal motors when you've got them in hand (versus other models or kitbashed motors).

[jspatz1]

I'm guessing by "old" you mean prior to the 2011 motors. Yes, the 2011 FP motor is more powerful than the 2010 and previous ones. To identify, look at the printed model number on the motor, and refer to the 20XX KOP documentation.

[lemiant]

This didn't happen to any of the other motors did it?

[PAR_WIG1350]

This didn't happen to any of the other motors did it?

there where various window motors which are easily identifiable due to case differences and output spline patterns. You still have to be careful of right hand and left hand motors since you are typically only allowed a certain number of each side.

some banebots motors and mabuchi motors also look similar, although the latter were not used this year. The banebots motors can be identified by the banebots labels and mabuchi motors should have a stylized "M" either molded into the end or stamped into the can. Even with this it can be difficult. The Banebots RS-550 looks very similar to the banebots RS-555, the mabuchi RS-550, the mabuchi RS-555SH, the Mabuchi RS-555VC...

For Breakaway, we had the RS-555SH and the RS-555VC. They were both the same size and made by the same company. The differences, however, were not negligible as the VC was significantly more powerful and we were only allowed one of each. The only easy way to tell the difference was to look at the vent holes; the SH only had a few while the VC had about twice as many.

To make things even more confusing, people have developed a habit of calling the mabuchi motors "banebots" motors due to their similarities.