Jaguars and Victors

[apalrd]

Originally Posted by Chexposito

features in each controller mainly... victors are nice because they don't have a breaker in them, so they run as long as the power distribution board is giving it juice. you also have to deal with the fan wires. really most teams don't use the features in the jaguars, which pretty much levels them out besides the internal breaker, which is why that's probably on your arm... you draw more current when moving a long arm with a weight on the end than turning wheels...

1. There is no breaker in the Jauguars. There is, however, an overcurrent lockout, where the Jaguars will enter a fault condition (and turn off the connected motor) when the controlled motor pulls too much current for too long.

2. The Victors seem to be more reliable to me.

3. A drive will generally pull a lot more current than an arm:

Most drive systems have a total of 4 CIM motors in a one or two speed transmission. In a single speed, speed and torque are compromised, so when accelerating or pushing, the motors will draw large amounts of current (the CIMs stall at 133 amps). In a two speed it is a little better, although high gear acceleration will still draw huge amounts of current, low gear is usually traction-limited so the point where the wheels slip draws enough current for the breakers not to trip (so, if would be a max continuous power of 40 amps per motor, which is still a lot). An arm has one or two motors working together to drive a much more controlled load. It also usually has counter-balance to help it. A banebots 550 motor pulls 85 amps at stall, and in a properly designed arm, it generally never stalls for a considerable amount of time, because the FP and Banebots motors will smoke when stalled.