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Unread 22-12-2015, 11:45
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Greg Needel Greg Needel is offline
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FRC #2848 (All-sparks)
Team Role: Engineer
 
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Re: REV Sparks or Vex Victor 888?

Quote:
Originally Posted by GreyingJay View Post
I've heard people tout the fully-sealed enclosures of the newer controllers as an advantage. Does the "open" nature of the Victor 888 pose a serious disadvantage? Is it highly susceptible to swarf, dust, dirt, etc. blocking the fan or getting into the electronics?
Yes. The biggest issue with the 884/888 style is how susceptible they are to catching on fire due to metal chips. Under the fan, you have a direct shot down to the PCB and FETS. While the PCB is conformally coated, it doesn't take much of a shaving to short across the leads of a FET. I would be that 75% + of the failures of these style controllers come from metal shaving or chips inside of them. The rest of the failures come from teams wiring them up wrong (either reverse polarity on the input side or power into the motor side).
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Greg Needel│www.robogreg.com
Co-founder REV Robotics LLC www.REVrobotics.com
2014 FRC World Champions with 254, 469, & 74