View Single Post
  #8   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 23-07-2015, 00:08
EricH's Avatar
EricH EricH is offline
New year, new team
FRC #1197 (Torbots)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: SoCal
Posts: 19,802
EricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond reputeEricH has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Electrical Board for mecanum

Quote:
Originally Posted by GeeTwo View Post
Actually, it may be a bit of a change to the control board, as the wheels must be independently driven. If using PWM to drive your motor controllers, you must use four separate PWM ports, not two with wye cables.
I'm aware of that. For the record, that's not a change to the required number of motor controllers for the drive--which is what I was addressing--unless, as in your case, you're running a non-4-motor drivetrain. (Also note that CAN is not governed by the same rules as PWM, so if that is your setup, it's purely a mechanical and programming problem.) It's simply a wire routing, which should have little to no effect on the board (given that PWMs are small, light wires and there's almost certainly one going that route anyway, even if it is on a splitter for a tank-drive setup). The effect will be on the RoboRIO: namely, you have to use two more outputs for the drive motors.


There is one other change, though, that the OP should be aware of. Due to the mechanical aspects of the drivetrain, you'll have less space in the corners than normal, but if you can keep the mechanical crew from putting stuff in between the wheels, there may be more space on the sides of the robot to play with.
__________________
Past teams:
2003-2007: FRC0330 BeachBots
2008: FRC1135 Shmoebotics
2012: FRC4046 Schroedinger's Dragons

"Rockets are tricky..."--Elon Musk