Legal servos

[matthewdenny]

So after reading the rules for this year it would appear that there isn't a power limit on servos. Specifically that vex servos would be legal. Am I missing anything?

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by matthewdenny

So after reading the rules for this year it would appear that there isn't a power limit on servos. Specifically that vex servos would be legal. Am I missing anything?

There is no "power" limit as such. But the "roboRIO is limited to a max current output of 2.2A on the 6V rail (12.4W of electrical input power). Teams should make sure that their total servo power usage remains below this limit at
all times."

So there is a max power output of 12.4 watts that will be your limiting factor

Unlimited PWM COT's servos are allowed, so there should not be a problem with the 3-wire VEX servo

[SamM]

As a followup, what happens if you do try to draw more than 2.2A from the 6V rail?

We have some larger servos that we would like to use for their robustness, but don't have a max current listed. Will the RIO brown-out or be damaged if we try to draw more than the limit, or will the servos simply stop working correctly?

[pilleya]

Originally Posted by SamM

As a followup, what happens if you do try to draw more than 2.2A from the 6V rail?

The servo can only draw as much current as the 12v to 6v converter can provide, the rail will not give out more than 2.2A.

Using a larger servo for the robustness is a great idea, it won't be able to draw more than 2.2 amps. The servo will still work fine, but will still operate at 13.2 watts. Nothing will happen to the robo-rio.