[archiver]

Posted by Nate Smith.

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

Posted on 4/2/2000 2:58 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: We Need Help!!!!!!! posted by Brian Savitt on 4/2/2000 11:04 AM MST:



: We had the same problem with our drive train and we opened up our drill motors and found that the wires werent sodered well so we resodered every wire and everything works wonderfully: Hello everyone!

: : Ca regional went well. Alot of teams are really good.
: : Look out for teams 330, 60, and 64. Oh and 115 if I
: : can get some help with this problem we are having.

: : This is the problem. During practice rounds we were
: : driving around picking up balls without a hitch.
: : Everything worked great. But when we were in our
: : second qualifying match the left side of our drivetrain
: : just would not work. It would act as though the fuse
: : went. After a few seconds it would work again but it
: : never worked the whole match, it just got worse. This
: : happened the rest of competition and randomly we were
: : still ranked 12th.

: : So, we replaced everything...speed controller, new
: : drill motor, switched the connection on the fuse panel,
: : realined the chains, lubed chains, and everything else
: : we could think of...even changing the gear ratio. None
: : of these things helped at all.

: : we found out that it was drawing about 10 to 15 more
: : amps than the right side. But after we switched
: : everything AGAIN it was the same, it drew the same
: : current, until of course we went out on the field where
: : it didnt work after about 30 seconds.

: : During this whole process we were taking advice from
: : practically every enginner from other teams as well as
: : a couple of crew people from FIRST. None of them had a
: : solution. They had ideas which we tried, but nothing
: : worked.

: : Strangest of all things...we went outside after we had
: : frozen up in our first final match, and it worked with
: : no problems. We drove it around for 5 to 10 min.
: : Nothing went wrong.

: : I am wondering if the control box could be bad. I mean
: : something like the competition port. I was also
: : wondering if a bad fuse panel could cause this.

: : Any ideas??

: : Thank you, and look out for us in Fla. (if we fix this
: : prob.)

: : Travis Covingt
If you're losing just one motor, I doubt it would be the competition port or Arena Controller. Is the light still staying on when the motor goes out? If so, the communication between the OI & robot, as well as the internal processors on the RC, are ok. One other question(which gave us problems at Great Lakes): is the dynamic braking on the speed controller controlling your drive motor turned on(jumper removed or on pins B & C)? If so, the high switching currents generated when quickly changing direction or stopping could be causing the breaker to trip. With just a few seconds before it comes back on, it points to a breaker problem of some type, it's just a matter of figuring out what is causing the problem.

Nate