FRC Blog - 2016 Motor Controllers

[EricH]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

I think that many teams face enough of a design challenge just fielding a robot without adding more restrictions to motors.

I agree with Knufire. WARNING: You just woke up a geezer!

[geezer]Back in my day, we didn't have no stinkin' 775 motors! Didn't have more'n TWO, count 'em, TWO, CIMs! Unlimited motors? HAH! We was lucky ta get more'n two of any one motor! And we didn't have all this selection of controllers either--all we had were Victor 884s! And Spikes! And don't get me started on the gearboxes! You think more restrictions means harder challenge, you're darn right, maybe it's ACTUALLY a challenge now! You young whippersnappers these days...[/geezer]

All right, back to seriousness... You get two drill motors, two CIM motors, two Fischer-Price motors, two Globe motors with attached gearbox, two window motors, and one van door motor. Build a robot that can play Recycle Rush. I can do it with two drills, one CIM, and one van door motor (and a couple of pneumatic cylinders). Won't be very fast, but I'm pretty sure that it'd be a second-rounder for consistency. (Hint: I've done it--2003.) By the way, that's the actual motor list from around '03-04 timeframe--we didn't get the second pair of CIMs until '05 and lost the drill motors to get it. And somehow, everybody showed up with a robot that--at least in general--ran, and most of them actually ran pretty well.

This whole "unlimited high-power motor" thing has been kind of... well, I don't know. It is what it is, but I'm thinking that it was about time for it to end. Maybe we'll get some contact back next year with the power dialed down...