CIM motors on driver station

[yash101]

I have an idea for a 'smart' driver station that can make batterywork and worrying about if the driver station has enough power much easier. I was thinking that it would be feasible to use a car battery to power the entire cart. However, when I was calculating the weight of the cart plus the cargo, it seems that at least two people tugging at their full potential would be required to push the weight. Could it be possible for me to place CIM motors with victors, connected to my controller to help reduce the amount that the human would need to push. I was thinking that touch sensors should b placed on the handlebars to trigger the motors when a certain amount of force if applied. If the driver loses control and lets go of the cart, the cart should automatically go into brake mode (I think that will work on victors). Note, the project homepage is located on my personal homepage, located at:
http://devstuff.no-ip.info

[Joe G.]

Many teams have made powered carts which do not rely on humans to push at all, but instead are driven and steered like a robot, using built in controls or a tethered control unit.

Be aware though that queuers are generally not fans of this type of cart, as they are hard for them to move around if they have to, since they will not be familiar with the control setup. Generally its advisable to give the cart the capability to shift into "neutral," so that it can be manually pushed as well as need be.

[AllenGregoryIV]

I'm a little confused by your posts. Are you trying to build something that combines the driver station and the cart? Would the cart be in the driver station during matches? I'm not sure what the FTAs at your events are going to say about something like that. I also think it might be against the rules but that's probably something for next year's Q&A.

[ablatner]

Let's think about this. Your goal is to make sure your laptop and peripherals have enough power and won't go out during a match (happened to us a couple times the past few years...). First off, get a new laptop battery, or maybe even a cheap new laptop with good battery life. Second, you can get a DC-AC power inverter. It converts a robot battery's 12VDC to 120VAC like a wall outlet. The battery plugs into one end, and the laptop charger the other. Cheaper, simpler, more reliable.

Of course, if want to do your powered cart because it's a fun project, then by all means go for it. Just keep this in mind too.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

As I responded in your other post, safety is a great concern. Most venues get very tight in the queue and having a powered cart is really not the best thing in those cases.

[evanperryg]

Talk to someone from team 1806. They had a moving cart at champs, but I'm not sure how they did it.

[Stark4Prez23]

Originally Posted by evanperryg

Talk to someone from team 1806. They had a moving cart at champs, but I'm not sure how they did it.

Theirs was donated to them. It was just a cargo forklift kinda thing that they adjusted for placing a robot on. I agree with the other posts though, because it could become a safety hazard. Good luck!

[evanperryg]

I would say try a kitbot with a really low-speed gearing. That would make it easy to control and powerful enough to carry the robot and everything else. What, exactly, is the advantage of a powered cart? I understand it's cool to show off, but it seems like a lot of resources for something with minimal benefit.