Battery life

[matthewgkerr]

Hi all, I hope everyone is doing well. My team has come to me with what appears to be a fairly serious issue. We have built the Andy Mark drive frame in the long configuration with 6 high grip wheels - all wheel drive. We added everything needed to drive the robot using the large CIM motors and the gear box as per the Andy Mark instructions. On a fully charge motor, if we drive the robot around in circles, the battery drops quickly to a point where the motors can no longer turn the robot. This happens in less than 2 minutes. I believe the robot can still drive straight - it just can't turn.

Last year we built the Andy Mark in the short (square) configuration with 2 wheel drive. In the old configuration we easily got a full game with the shooting components (and other stuff) all working.

I realise we are probably driving on a surface with greater friction, but I wasn't expecting the new configuration to be such a drain on the battery.

So my questions are:
- Have any other teams come across this problem and can they make suggestions?
- Should I put a chamfer on the edge of the wheels?
- Should we lower the middle wheel so the robot rocks on the middle wheel?
- Are the ways we can manipulate the software and the motor controller to optimise battery usage?
- Any general suggestions?

Thanks everyone, and good luck!