Andymark motor help

[Jtbillick]

Hey, my team is trying to add an intake system to our robot and we ran into a problem. We have 2 andymark motors wired to victors. The victors are wired to the 40 amp section on the PDP. When we turn the robot on, the motors immediately start running, even when the robot is disabled. We tried switching the motor controllers, but it still had the same problem. Does anyone know how we can fix this? Thanks

[orangemoore]

Can you upload a picture of the wiring?

[DonRotolo]

Possible causes:
1. The Victors are shorted (and damaged)
2. The Victors are wired incorrectly (may cause #1)

If you disconnect the PWM cables and the motors run, the fault is in the Victors for certain.

As ornagemoore requested, please upload a good photo of how the victors are wired

[Jtbillick]

Okay so my team switched the victors for spikes. Here's a picture of how the spike is wired:
The motor is connected to the side that has m+ and m-. The other side is connected to the 40 amp PDP.

[GeeTwo]

Did using the spike resolve the issue?

If not, the picture should include the other end of the wiring as well; most of the errors than can be made with the wiring would be "off screen" on that pic.

[Alan Anderson]

Victors and Spikes are not functional replacements for each other. What is the other end of the three-wire control cable connected to? If you tried to control a Spike relay using a PWM signal, it wouldn't work well at all. I suspect it would end up with the LED being solid red and the motor running in reverse (at full speed, of course).

Note that a Spike isn't intended to switch more than 20 amps, and putting it on a 40A circuit is not a best practice.