Quote:
Originally posted by oneangrydwarf
When running our robot for about 45 minutes with little break in between (i know this isn't a good idea) we noticed the odd smell of melting plastic.
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Sounds like you have a pretty good design. If the motors lasted for 45 minutes of near continuous duty without damage to motor or mount, I think you are doing very well. I would recommend in the future (to all teams actually) that you periodically check the motor temp. A handhled fan, a heatshrink gun on "cool", or some freeze spray ( I am not fond of this one, if wrongly applied, I believe it washes lubricant out of the end bearings and of course causes condensation to form on the cold metal) applied every 10 minutes during practice would be a good idea. We watch for heating during extended practice, at least I hope they are doing it this year.
To the other teams that are heating after just a few minutes, check you mech design and current draw on the motors. As has been discussed in these forums before, it essential to get the motors near to design speeds for the internal fans to work properly and place the motor in an efficient area of the power curve.