New Speed Controller Announced
 

http://www.itnewsonline.com/showprns...p?storyid=4972

This article covers the new speed controller that will be in the 2009 Kit of Parts it looks really interesting features include current and voltage sensing.

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

ah man, no Victors next year ?

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

Freaking awesome! This means we won't end up ripping victors off of old robots.

thanks, Vivek

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

We may still be able to use Victors next year.

From the FIRST Technical Q&A

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

I really like the feature set of these, but my primary questions are....

....how many do we get in the kit, and how much will additional units cost? ;)

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

Wait sorry, are you SURE there's no VIC's any more? that would be good news for us, having two years ago named our robot Sparky after it successfully blew up 4, yes four, VIC's through out the season! large amounts of flying sparks and magic smoke!

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

I wouldn't necessarily blame the HARDWARE for your magic smoke, as IFI's Victors have proven resilient for us time and time again, but per the article, the new controller does apparently offer a design that is more resistant to metal chips and such getting into the fan/MOSFET area. It also has color coded terminals to make wiring more straightforward and less susceptible to error.

The built in support for limit switch inputs is interesting.

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

No it was not the VIC's themselves. We thought metal filings were getting into them and frying them, but when the two replacement VIC's we put in blew as well, we discovered that two of the four drive motors both had a shorting problem, which caused a surge, which was why the VIC's sparked. unfortunatly it was too late to swap motors, so we had two CIMs per side but only one was powered.

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

Here is the Luminary Micro FIRST robotics site. http://www.luminarymicro.com/jaguar

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

There's a website for it: http://www.luminarymicro.com/jaguar.
Seems like a prettied up vic with a few extras.

oops, what are the chances of that?

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

These look cool! They also look expensive.

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

They also look like they might take up more mounting space than an 884 array. We'll have to wait to get the dimensional info.

It's like old Pontiacs with the plastic body cladding (think Aztek) - I'd gladly do away with the gee whiz turbo look for a cleaner, more compact exterior.

The feature set still looks very promising, though.

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

Are those black holes RJ45 ports?

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

Yes, RJ-45 is the new connector style that will connect everything to the cRIO, via CAN communication.

Re: New Speed Controller Announced
 

This is interesting news.

I am curious to see how they stack up against the Victor 884s, especially in the price, weight, size, and reliability/durability departments. Since the preliminary indications seem to note that both these and the Victor 884s will be legal this coming year, it would be nice if Luminary Micro began selling them before the kickoff date, so we could test them out first hand on previous/prototype robots.

Also, it's hard to tell from their CAD model, but where will the fan intake be? The top doesn't appear to be open, so does it draw from an opening in the back? Or are those little rib-like things in the front of the sides the air intakes? Depending on their airflow patterns, they may be easier to "stack" together to save space...

And for us mechanical nerds, it would also be nice if Luminary Micro posted CAD drawings of these online. Or at the very least, drawings of the mounting hole diameter and locations, as well as information on the counterbored area around these holes. :cool: