Spark Motor Controller vs. Victor SP

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Billfred;152642e9

I'd use either, no hesitation. Just make sure you use the same one for both sides if you have more than one motor in play on a mechanism. Rookie-year us saw a team member wire all of one side of the drive with Victor 884s and the other with Victor 888s. The 888s had a far more linear response, so they wondered why the robot would pull to one direction. Sure enough, when everything went to 888s the issue went away!

Building a little on Billfred's comment above --

Linear response (steady state RPM vs. PWM demand) is important in many robot mechanism controls. Tom Line (1718) presented some results on this, and Ether has used my Whirlpool motor lab to make the linearity comparison of several controllers when they are driving a CIM motor with dynamometer load. We are still working to extend that comparison to the latest controller types.

While those results are not complete now, I can say that the SPARK and Victor SP controllers showed very similar linearity. Our early results also confirm CTRE's results (again using CIM motor with dynamometer loading) regarding forward voltage drop across the controllers vs. load current.

As others have said, I think most teams will (and should) use controllers they have on hand, or choose new ones based on cost and features. I like SPARKs for their price, flashy lights, and screw terminals -- the latter allow me to select the lead length I want now without worrying that I might need longer leads later on.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace, emphasis mine

As others have said, I think most teams will (and should) use controllers they have on hand, or choose new ones based on cost and features. I like SPARKs for their price, flashy lights, and screw terminals -- the latter allow me to select the lead length I want now without worrying that I might need longer leads later on.

Building a little on Richard's comment building a little on mine...

I mentioned this on the Team Cockamamie Periscope, but when we opened the Spark boxes we were greeted with what might be holy grail of FIRST parts: two additional terminal screws, in a little baggy, tucked in the corner of the box.

As a mentor whose teams have all had at least one Victor sitting in the box with no terminal screws, that right there was enough to sell me!

(Granted, these Sparks didn't come straight from Amazon--they came in a box from Greg. However, it was inside the retail packaging and if this was Greg trying to hook us up I can't imagine he wouldn't just toss the extra screws in the outer box.)

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Billfred

As a mentor whose teams have all had at least one Victor sitting in the box with no terminal screws, that right there was enough to sell me!

(Granted, these Sparks didn't come straight from Amazon--they came in a box from Greg. However, it was inside the retail packaging and if this was Greg trying to hook us up I can't imagine he wouldn't just toss the extra screws in the outer box.)

I got some directly from Greg and also purchased a few more from Amazon. The extra screws were included both times.

[Michael Corsetto]

We're have about 40 Victor SP's in our inventory.

We just finished our bellypan layout for 2016 and couldn't have pulled off what we did without the tight form factor of the Victor SP.

If space is a constraint (which it often is), I'd recommend the Victor SP.

-Mike

[Travis Covington]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

We're have about 40 Victor SP's in our inventory.

We just finished our bellypan layout for 2016 and couldn't have pulled off what we did without the tight form factor of the Victor SP.

If space is a constraint (which it often is), I'd recommend the Victor SP.

-Mike

Agreed.

We are moving to the Talon SRX this year (ordered 20+ of them), but both the Victor and Talon are awesome WRT size. It allowed us to package a lot of electronics in an extremely small size last year (it will help this year too, but we aren't there yet). The integrated wires, when close to the PDB, do save you time and effort when installing things as well. We will likely be terminating the other end with a deans or XT60 connector to make swapping motors easier than before. When we measured, the weight differences were negligible as well when accounting for wire, etc.

I think the price point on the spark controller is awesome and will help a lot of teams, but to us there is a benefit that the added cost gets us when talking about size and proven performance. We will check back again next year when the spark has seen a full (arguably one of the roughest) FRC seasons of use, and will objectively make a decision on what to use.

For the OP, use what you have, It will work fine. Also, make sure you are using your CTRE/IFI PDV as you can get even more of those for free! http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/pdv-2016.html

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by Billfred

Building a little on Richard's comment building a little on mine...

I mentioned this on the Team Cockamamie Periscope, but when we opened the Spark boxes we were greeted with what might be holy grail of FIRST parts: two additional terminal screws, in a little baggy, tucked in the corner of the box.

As a mentor whose teams have all had at least one Victor sitting in the box with no terminal screws, that right there was enough to sell me!

(Granted, these Sparks didn't come straight from Amazon--they came in a box from Greg. However, it was inside the retail packaging and if this was Greg trying to hook us up I can't imagine he wouldn't just toss the extra screws in the outer box.)

The inclusion of the PWM cable sold me.

Spark + PWM Cable + Extra Screws =

If I had to complain about anything on the Spark, the LEDs are very bright.

[Mike Copioli]

I have not seen this mentioned anywhere but another feature unique to the Talon SR/SRX and Victor SP is the smart LED. The led will blink at a rate proportional to duty cycle. A faster blink rate means you are approaching full throttle. I find this feature very useful when trouble shooting control loops without the motor being connected.