[Team230]

We essentially switched everything around on the robot, and have come to the conclusion that the motor controllers are locking up when the power drops too low or surges. All of the symptoms remained except for when we added another battery that powered the motor controller with our drive motors separately. Once the motor controllers overload we have to restart the robot and Samantha (but not the NXT) for the robot to begin working again. We also ran the robot without the Samantha and just on a wire, and the problems still continued. We tried replacing this controller and that didn't solve the problem as well. Due to FTC rules, all 8 of our motors, our 3 servos, and our Samantha have to be on the same power supply, and all motors have constant moderate strain. The problem occurs whenever we flip our drive motors from forwards to backwards, and at any other point where we put too much strain on the robot.

After replacing the battery to a full one yesterday we were able to drive problem free for about 45 minutes before we packed up. However, we replaced the battery to a fresh one today, and the problems still continued. The power for the controllers and Samantha is wired in parallel, and all of our drive motors are one one controller and our lift mechanism is on another controller. Is there anything that you think we can do to resolve our power problem? Thanks so much!