Voltage Drop problems

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Jecht22

We have just competed in the Seattle cascade regional and placed 6th in qualifying rounds as well as won the engineering inspiration award. Because we still have to compete in spokane and then head off to the St.Louis for nationals I want to try to resolve a problem that is really hurting the performance of our robot. When running the ball collection system and the shooter at the same time there is a big voltage drop (Usually going from 12.4 down to around 8 or 9v) which affects the accuracy of our automatic shooting as the balls don't always go the same distance. Right now we are running the entire collection system off of one banebot 64:1 motor which seems to be stressed over the amount of work it has to do and the shooter is run off of a direct drive CIM motor. Is there any way to eliminate this or lesson the effect of the drop by?. Potentially by adding another motor to lesson the stress on the motor.

Is your shooter single-speed, or do you vary the speed for various distances? If single speed, what PWM percent are you commanding? If various speeds, what is the maximum PWM you command? Are you running a Vic or a Jag, and if Jag, are you using CAN bus? The answer to these questions affects the possible solutions.

Also, When you say "direct drive CIM motor" what do you mean by that? Do you mean the CIM is directly connected to the shooter wheel axle with no gear reduction? Or do you mean the CIM is connected to a gearbox, and the gearbox is directly connected to the shooter axle?