Posted by Lloyd Burns at 2/18/2001 8:52 PM EST
Engineer on team #188, Woburn Robotics, from Woburn Collegiate and TorDistSchoolBrd, ScotiaBank. OntPwrGen, Enbridge.
In Reply to: Backdrive disable for the van door motors?
Posted by Brandon Heller on 2/18/2001 7:46 PM EST:
: My team is trying to use two van door motors to lift a ball-grabbing arm. The problem is that when we cut the power to the motors, the arms come back down. Does anyone know how to disable backdriving? We think it may have to do with the torx screw on the top of the motor, but we're not sure.
: Can anyone help us out?
: Thanks!
That's a Crispy Creme : Absolutely doughnut do it !!!
It tightens the end bearing on the worm, eventually causing failure as the worm loosens (Isn't that a soap ? No, ... that's "As the Worm Turns"
.
If you need to _slow_down_ the back drive, you can use the brake setting on the Victor. This puts a short across the terminals of the motor, which is acting as a generator in backdrive. The short makes it hard to backdrive, but hanging (last year's sport) a robot with a van door motor with the Victor on brake is not guaranteed, because at slow speed, the generator isn't generating enough voltage to stop itself, just remain slow.