Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Rotolo
Ditto here.
You mean aside from integrated end-limit switch inputs, a far more linear response curve and range, thermal and overcurrent protection, smart fans, clearer markings (can't miss that red screw) and better cost, all of which the Jaguars have and Victors do not?
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I'll bite, as no one is on some of these things. These are all for 2009, as 2009 is the season people are debating right now. I don't care what will be enabled later or what they can do later on right now (I'll be stoked when they are though), I just care about what they do right now.
End-limit Switch Inputs; In the past few years, I've used limit switches only on one mechanism, and we wanted the state of that switch for other operations in the code. So, we can wire it directly to the controller and just toggle the motor on and off, OR we can build a little circuit (another possible failure point) that has to be plugged into the jaguar and the controller? I'm completely not fine with having the limit switch only connected to the jaguar and the controller not knowing the state, that's just potential for disaster.
Far More linear response; I have yet to see them tested on one of my team's bases, but I think this may be the jaguars one true advantage. Smoother control, sounds good to me.
Thermal and overcurrent protection; I'm always the guy on the team trying to push components to their limits, trying to get that last competitive drop of performance out of them. Since my 2005 season (only because I can't recall back further), I've never seen a motor burn out on a competition robot, and only have ever seen on victor fail (due to faulty wiring) which wasn't due to overhearting. This is really a non issue with me. Sure, it's great, it's a feature... but it's not addressing something that was a problem with the Victors.
Clearer markings; Oooooh... my team has heard a lot of this one from me. The markings (as other people have said) are actually WORSE than before... you mark the screws? Well, I've seen kids take off both screw per side to wire up, not good practice, but it happens. If they get put back backwards once, human nature will probably keep it from being noticed for a while. I imagine inexperienced teams having an epidemic of problems with this.
Better Cost; This one really changes on a team per team basis. For my team, when we compare the categories for selecting speed controller, we won't simply say, "Oh, the Jaguar is $75. That's way cheaper than a victor. Lets use that". We're going to look at the total cost. Right now, we have 13-15 Victors ready to go for next year, and 4 Jaguars. If we decide on all Jaguars, and possibly up to 20 speed controllers, that's a lot of money, substantially more than just trading for a few victors.
So, right now, for this season, the one advantage (for non rookie/2nd year teams with minimal victors on hand) is the smoother performance. For right now, that's not enough to outweigh what our team see's as the cons. For the 2010 season, I expect the debate will be entirely different, but the fact is, I'm not worried about the 2010 season at this time.
I really hope people will weigh all the pros and cons rather than just citing how "improved" the jaguar is.
This isn't coming from a bias towards IFI either. I love IFI, think they're great people. I also love AndyMark, think they're great people. But if someone else comes out and markets a better speed controller and a better 2 speed COTS gearbox (assuming both legal to use), we're sure as heck going with the better stuff.
But hey, if any of you guys want to get rid of those terrible victors, my team would be willing to trade and take that burden off your hands.