New Motors Controllers

[safiq10]

VEX and Cross the Roads Electronics have teamed up to make a new series of Motor Controllers!

Hi all,

The Motor Controller landscape for the 2015 FRC season is going to be changing, and we’d like to share a few details in advance of Kickoff to give you a heads up. We normally only provide advance information on the upcoming season when necessary, but we think these details fall into that category.

Victor, Talon, and Jaguar Motor Controllers will be legal for the 2015 season and compatible with the new control system. A selection of these controllers will be available in the 2015 Kickoff Kits and/or through FIRST Choice.

The manufacturers of these motor controllers are, however, discontinuing them, and our understanding is the only ones available for purchase are those already in distribution.

Cross the Road Electronics and Innovation First International (IFI) have been working together on new motor controllers. They’ve published a joint press release about this collaboration and are sharing more information about the new products here.

We are sending new motor controllers to the Beta Teams for evaluation for legality in the 2015 season. While these two new controllers will not be in teams’ 2015 Kickoff Kits, we want to use the beta program to collect feedback on the new motor controllers that will enable us to decide if the new motor controllers will be listed as legal motor controllers for the 2015 FRC season. Based on initial testing results, we don’t believe there will be an issue with approving them for use in 2015, but teams should know the final decision has not yet been made.

The first controller is the Victor SP, a PWM motor controller. The second controller, the Talon SRX, is a CAN enabled motor controller with additional communication protocols and PID control. It is in development now, and will be shared with beta teams upon completion. Technical information for both devices is posted here.

Beta test tasks will be updated as needed to accommodate testing and evaluation of these devices. Meanwhile, questions about these devices can be posted to FIRST’s 2015 FRC Beta Test Forum, or emailed to CTRE or VEX.

Also the Talons and Jaguars will no longer be in production so buy them while their still avaliable.

These devices are not available yet, as they’re still being evaluated, but barring any issues, we expect to make them available to teams before Kickoff 2015. Neither company will continue production of the Victor 888, Talon SR, or Jaguar, but these devices will continue to be available while remaining inventory lasts.

So much change is happening for the next season! I wonder if we will get a new router? Or maybe CORNDOGS! (sorry I had to)

[safiq10]

Here are the link to the motor controllers and the press release from VEX and Cross the Road Electronics
Talon SRX

Victor SP

Press Release

[Michael Hill]

Very exciting. I look forward to seeing data on how linear these are. I'd like to think no worse than the original Talons

[billbo911]

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=130334

[Michael Hill]

Unfortunately, this does sound like AndyMark will no longer be able to sell motor controllers...which is uncool.

[Kingland093]

So the current controllers will be legal for 2015 only? then be fully replaced by the new ones?

[Ether]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

Very exciting. I look forward to seeing data on how linear these are. I'd like to think no worse than the original Talons

I think there was some general agreement that the non-linearity of the pre-888 Victors when driving inductive loads (motors) was due to the relatively low (150Hz) output switching frequency. All the new controllers are 15,000Hz.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

Unfortunately, this does sound like AndyMark will no longer be able to sell motor controllers...which is uncool.

Why? AndyMark has always sold CRE stuff. They even have sold some VexPro parts.