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Unread 28-01-2004, 07:13
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Al Skierkiewicz Al Skierkiewicz is offline
Broadcast Eng/Chief Robot Inspector
AKA: Big Al WFFA 2005
FRC #0111 (WildStang)
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Re: smoking drill motors?

Quote:
Originally Posted by quickie25
We are well into power distribution and onboard systems but when we hooked up our drill motors for a brief test, we got a small puff of smoke after they began to run (only 2-3 seconds had elapsed). A melted plastic smell was also apparent. Is this normal burnoff due to being new motors and being run for the first time or have we done something truly wrong?

Any advice is greatly appreciated...

regards
Quickie,
This is not normal. With everything else being normal, this condition would indicate the the brush assembly had become loose and either the brushes were overheating or they were contacting the fan and melted it from the friction generated. Had you soldered new wires on the drill motors or were you using the original supplied wire? Soldering to these motors takes a real expert and I would recommend that you remove the brush assembly to solder new wires on. Last year's rules required you to keep the supplied wire intact but I have not seen anything about it this year.
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Al
WB9UVJ
www.wildstang.org
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Storming the Tower since 1996.