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Originally Posted by Joe Johnson
I agree with 80-90% of what Matt has to say, but the above quoted comment is one that I feel I need to say something about.
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I'll take an 80-90% from Joe any day.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Joe Johnson
I don't know of any teams that had problems with the main breaker tripping last year, whether they had N motors per side or not.
This is not to say that there are not multiple reasons NOT to use N motors per side -- there are many, but tripping the 120 Amp breaker is not one of them (imho).
<snip>
So... ...we retrofitted an extra set of motors per side for the sole purpose of pushing back the limits due to the single 40 Amp current path.
For what it is worth...
Joe J.
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To comment on what Joe is saying, I understand his point. In addition, I have a few hunches as to why there were teams that used multiple motors and didn't trip the 120 Amp breakers:
Most of the time, teams who are using multiple pairs of motors have excellent designers in the first place, or copied the designs of excellent designers. In pushing matches, the teams were in their properly designed high torque gear set. This should have caused them little fear of tripping much of anything.
However, I would bet the farm that a robot in their high speed gear set pushing up against a wall would trip the 120 Amp breaker before any individual motors would give out.
So I'll definitely agree that Joe has a viewpoint that is very valid. My point was just a heads up: It theoretically possible to push that 120 Amp limit
if your gear ratios are not designed properly. You must design your ratios with a limiting factor of the 120 Amp breaker if you use more than two motors.
If you assume that since you're using twice the number of motors, you can make your speed ratio twice as high, you'll be in trouble, since you don't have twice the power due to the 120 Amp circuit breaker. If the game changes this year to requiring some sort of manipulator that could be pulling another 10 or 20 amps... be alert!
To summarize, I'm giving a theory viewpoint for the new designer, while Joe is calling it like he's seen it (which is essentially that teams have designed multiple motor drive trains well! Woo hoo!

).
Thanks for the comments, Joe!