[ChuckDickerson]

Let’s face it, just about everything on an FRC robot is driven by either a motor or a pneumatic solenoid. OK, so there are some uses for springs and servos and such but the bulk of everything that FRC robots “do” are ultimately actuated by either a motor or a pneumatic solenoid. I welcomed the changes this past year in opening up the choices we had for pneumatic solenoids. I think FIRST is on the right track. Now maybe it is time to look at the motors.

Many teams, especially rookies, don’t have the resources (tooling, experience, funds, whatever) to develop custom gearboxes. The FP motors are a fairly standard 550 style “can” motor thus there are several off the shelf options for gearboxes that will turn the high speed, low torque FP motors into something with a more usable speed and torque output and just as importantly something with a more reasonable output shaft format such as a ½” keyed shaft (or whatever). Likewise, the CIM motors have several COTS gearbox options from companies like AndyMark and BaneBots. We even get usable CIM motor gearboxes in the KoP. That’s why the majority of teams, again especially rookies, use the CIM motors and the KoP “CIM gearbox of the year” (aside from the BaneBots planetary debacle of 2007).

Yes, we get a bunch of other odd ball motors in the KoP but most of them have such funky output shafts that they are just a royal PITA to use. Heck, most of the time we don’t get the special electrical connectors required to even use some of the window motors and such so we end up hacking some kind of unreliable soldered up connection. The Globe motor is sort of in between and isn’t too bad to deal with. We can talk all we want about optimal torque curves and choosing the most efficient motor for the job, etc. but when it comes down to it a lot of teams look at the pile of motors they are given to work with and say “these are ones we can do something with given our resources so lets design around these” and “all these other funky ones are kind of useless to us even if they would be great for an arm or wharever we can't make anything that uses that wierd output”.

There is a reason AndyMark and BaneBots sell such nice options for gearboxes for the FP (and other 500/550 style can motors) and for the CIM motors and not the window motors, etc. The FP/CIMs are a known quantity. The COTS gearboxes adapt the speed and torque of a FP/CIM to something more reasonable and just as importantly something we can easily stick a hub and sprocket or pulley or wheel or whatever on. If you are a team with a drill press and a miter saw it can be quite difficult to make something that reliably uses some of the other odd ball motor outputs. That is one reason I feel the designs are being too limited by the motors we are given to use. If more/all of the motors in the KoP had more standard/common/usable output interfaces like say a ½” keyed shaft (or whatever) then there would be many more off the shelf options as far as gears, sprockets, etc. that teams with limited resources could just acquire and use. Then many of the limitations on robot designs and capabilities would be reduced and the whole level of play would be raised.

I know a lot of the motors with the funky outputs like the window motors, van-door motors, etc. are probably donated automotive industry surplus and that’s fine. If FIRST gets them for free or real cheap then by all means throw them in the KoP. But if we all get 10-12 motors each year but only half of them are really usable by a large number of teams then designs and capabilities are being limited for a lot of those teams when compared to the teams that do have the resources to use more of the odd ball motors. In effect some teams get 10-12 motors in their kit while others get 4-6. For these reasons I would love to somehow see more options to use some kind of motors/gearboxes with outputs that are a bit easier to work with for ALL teams.