Talon sr, or SRX?

[Mschmeh144]

What type of talon are you using this season?
Personally, we are using at least six talon SRX controllers on our bot, I haven't counted them, but this may be a problem because we don't have enough spares. So, which talon would be more reliable to use, the SR or the SRX?

Also, is it possible to mix the two of them for use at the same time, not during competition, but on our test rig? Currently we have a testebed aptly named "ghettobot" which has four talon SR controllers but also has the option to use the two spare SRX controllers we have. Currently we just swap them using a few connectors when we need to work with the SRX, but would it be possible to avoid this and just leave them connected but disabled, as they are hidden under a platform attached to the robot and are hard to get to.
Thanks, any help would be appreciated

[Alan Anderson]

There's no problem in having a speed controller present and powered but with no motor connected.

Do not, under any circumstances, connect the outputs of two speed controllers together.

[FrankJ]

The SRs have proved to be very reliable so it is a tall bar for the SRXs to beat. The SRXs have more electronics in them, if you are not using canbus the Victor SPs might be a better choice. In either case neither have been out long enough to have fully established a reliability record comparable to the SRs.

While it is best not to mix controllers in a subsystem, I would hesitate to do it at a completion if that is was the only option.

[MrForbes]

We're late adopters. Six of the SR on our robot.

[E Dawg]

We're using five SRX's. The SR's were pretty good, but the SRX's blow them out of the water.

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by E Dawg

We're using five SRX's. The SR's were pretty good, but the SRX's blow them out of the water.

How so? Assume you are using PWM & no limit switches so you are comparing apples to apples.

Now if you are comparing Talon SRXs to Jag...

[Mschmeh144]

the talon srx has a closed casing, but so does the sr. the thing I don't like about the talon srx is the wires that come pre-attached. if you cut them or strip them you cannot make a mistake, or you've got yourself a useless talon. even the CAN wires come preattached, in the model that has them at least, im not sure if there is a PWM model.

also, its perfectly okay to have them plugged into the pdp and running on robot startup, but not connected to the motors?

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Mschmeh144

also, its perfectly okay to have them plugged into the pdp and running on robot startup, but not connected to the motors?

Sure. It's a custom circuit consisting of a very high-value resistor.

[Dunngeon]

Originally Posted by Mschmeh144

the talon srx has a closed casing, but so does the sr. the thing I don't like about the talon srx is the wires that come pre-attached. if you cut them or strip them you cannot make a mistake, or you've got yourself a useless talon. even the CAN wires come preattached, in the model that has them at least, im not sure if there is a PWM model.

also, its perfectly okay to have them plugged into the pdp and running on robot startup, but not connected to the motors?

There's quite a bit of wire on the SRX controller, it would take a large quantity of screw-ups to shorten the wire to the point where the SRX becomes unusable. If anything, the integrated wires are a plus because the electronics are physically isolated from the outside environment.

[Mschmeh144]

Originally Posted by Dunngeon

There's quite a bit of wire on the SRX controller, it would take a large quantity of screw-ups to shorten the wire to the point where the SRX becomes unusable. If anything, the integrated wires are a plus because the electronics are physically isolated from the outside environment.

This is true. But, accidents do happen. Especially with our testebed, which unexperienced members use like a toy.

[JesseK]

For critical components, we're also late adopters. 8 SR's on our bot (1 spare).

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

We're late adopters. Six of the SR on our robot.

Same here.

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

There's no problem in having a speed controller present and powered but with no motor connected.

Good thing. We only have five motors (3 H-drive, 2 on lift). The sixth has leads with Anderson connectors on the end. We started laying out the board before we knew what we needed, and while we took the PCB off, we left the unused talons and spikes as spares. (We're using the spikes for lighting).

[Pretzel]

We made a large investment in 24 Talon SRX's, as our design requires twelve and we're building a practice bot on top of the competition ones. So far, we've been VERY happy with them compared to the Jags we used previously.

[Mschmeh144]

Originally Posted by Pretzel

We made a large investment in 24 Talon SRX's, as our design requires twelve and we're building a practice bot on top of the competition ones. So far, we've been VERY happy with them compared to the Jags we used previously.

We found it easy to just buy a ton of them too, but we didn't buy enough to have a spare for every one that we actually use. I am impressed with their closed casing, and the way they are generally built allows them to be packed tightly into small spaces. Otherwise, we would be using talon SR controllers instead. They are definitley a improvement over the Jags, but only time will tell how much of a improvement.

[E Dawg]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

How so? Assume you are using PWM & no limit switches so you are comparing apples to apples.

Now if you are comparing Talon SRXs to Jag...

Talon SRX's use CAN, so we can get real-time data on the WebDashboard; they have passive heatsinking; they are microcontrollers, so the PID loop that controls them is offloaded; and it's almost impossible to get metal shavings in them.

Also CAN wiring is a lot better than PWM wiring.