Speed Controls
 

How many speed controls is a team allowed to use

As many as you want/need/can afford.

They have to be Victor 884s, however. Older Victor 883s are not legal.

Also you can't use more speed controllers than you have motors for. You can use speed controllers on any motor though. Even if it says to put a relay you can put a speed controller on it instead.

Including the compressor. Err... well... we weren't cited for doing it, last year.

i think they recommend putting compressor on a speed controller, we have always done it. i think it just works better and for longer because its then on a 30A, or now even a 40A and you won't have to worry about the spike fuses

I don't think that it works that way. You can use a speed controller on the compressor but it needs to be on a 30A. The 40A are specifically reserved for the drill motors and chips specifically.

You can use as many as you want, but there are only 16 PWM outputs, so that limits how many you can independantly control.

Yeah, i guess but aren't you limited to one speed controller or relay per motor, so what would you use the extra ones for?

Dead weight



In the restricted hardware list, it clearly lists Speed Controller (Victor 884) : Any amount - when used with motor.

That's some pretty expensive dead weight....

Nakatu

The compressors don't like starting when there is pressure in the system: They stall instead. Once they've started, 8 A is a good figure for the draw. When we had the previous controllers (in the BUD NEMA box) we placed a dump valve in the system, so the compressor always started into low pressure - and never even blew a 20 A fuse - and we could use a (supplied in the controller) relay instead of a costly motor speed controller.

I think that was 98. Many teams asked if they could use the controllers to solve the problem. It is still a valid solution.