VEX motors connection
 

Hi there everyone,

My team is trying to figure out how to connect the VEX 393 2 wire motors to the electrical board. We have already set it up to our conveyors and tested it using the VEX micro-controllers and it works fine, now we have to make it compatible with FIRST. Can anyone help out with the specifics

I'm guessing we have to use the VICTOR 884-- just not sure how those connections work.

(Please keep in mind that we're a complete rookie team :) )

Thank you in advance!

Re: VEX motors connection
 

I believe you want the vex motor controller per rule 51 in the robot section

[R51]
The only power regulating devices for actuators permitted on 2012 FRC Robots include:
A. Jaguar motor controller (PNs MDL-BDC and MDL-BDC24),
B. Victor motor controller (PN FR-VIC884)
C. VEX motor controller (PN 276-2193)
D. Spike Relay module (PN SPIKE-RELAY-H)

Re: VEX motors connection
 

It looks like this:

Re: VEX motors connection
 

Thank you! Just another quick question with that, how would we connect the VEX motor controller to the board because the connections look like they have to be inverted on the cRIO 9403. Also, in addition to the cRIO, what else do the motors have to be connected to?

Re: VEX motors connection
 

It plugs into the the side car, into the digital input. Then you add a jumper into the two pin connecter next to it. That provides the 6v of power for the Vex motor.

Re: VEX motors connection
 

I'd suggest making/buying a Female to Female PWM cable to act as an adapter, or depending on legality (would be a good question for the Q/A) you could cut off the male PWM connector and replace it with a female - though I would suggest against this without first consulting the manual and Q&A.

Re: VEX motors connection
 

There is nothing wrong with a F2F PWM. It just makes an extender. My team has done it for many years and I have never read anything in the manual saying you couldn't.

Re: VEX motors connection
 

A short female-to-female PWM cable was also included in the Kit of Parts for this purpose.

Re: VEX motors connection
 

Do you plug it into one of the 10 PWM outs? Or can you use a Digital I/O or relay out? We have used up all of our PWM outs and dont want to run a second side car for one item.

It must be a pwm port. Can you use a pwm y cable for some of your other speed controllers?

Re: VEX motors connection
 

According to R52 you can run them off of any legal speed controller you like or even a spike. (Note: You can't run them off the solenoid breakout board.) We have been running two off of a talon all season. We give them about .8 power and so far we haven't had any trouble. We only run them for about 3/4 of a second at a time because they just push the discs into our shooter but they seem to be holding up. So you could try them on a spike and see if it works, we have never tried it but the rules allow it.

Re: VEX motors connection
 

Thanks for the ideas about trying a spike. Any problems with it being at 12v and not the 6-7v the motor normally runs at? We only need to run shortly also to load the shooter. We are using a y cable on our pwm already and dont have another empty spot at this time, but that might have to change if we have issues with the spike.

Re: VEX motors connection
 

I have never tried running them at 12v but we have run them at 10v+ and they has been fine.