Handheld Motor Tester

[merrymarybeary]

This is another useful device brought to you by the students from Killer Bees Robotics: FRC Team 33.

This Instructable show how to create a handy motor testing device for Robotics Development. Every team should have one of these tools. It is incredibly useful and can be made for next to nothing out of stuff every FIRST team probably has laying around the shop. We have had one of these for years and use it daily. It allows you to safely do motor testing without needing a control system or speed controllers and allows you to reverse directions easily without swapping wires.

[url="http://www.instructables.com/id/Handheld-Motor-Tester-for-FIRST-Robotics/"]

[markmcgary]

It's a beautiful thing.

[RichQuinn]

Yep, perfect prototyping tool. We found these to be super useful.

Pro-tip: If you don't have an old drill laying around, don't worry - Harbor Freight has you covered.
http://www.harborfreight.com/power-t...kit-69652.html

You'll spend $24.99 if you're the reckless type who shops HF without a coupon. You'll come home with:
1. An 18V cordless drill you can take apart and re-purpose as described by the Bees.
2. An 18V battery and charger.
3. A big stable aimable flashlight that turns out to be more useful than expected and happily uses that 18V battery and charger.
4. An ~RS550-ish electric motor, gearbox, clutch and hex-shaft interface perfectly useful for off-season stuff. (we used a complete assembly as a conveyor drive in our 2016 OCCRA robot and it worked flawlessly)

I consider this one of our greatest Harbor Freight victories. I wish you similar success.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by RichQuinn

4. An ~RS550-ish electric motor, gearbox, clutch and hex-shaft interface perfectly useful for off-season stuff. (we used a complete assembly as a conveyor drive in our 2016 OCCRA robot and it worked flawlessly)

No -ish. I bought just the drill (about $15, without coupon because I couldn't wait) to power my Fight Night robot this summer. I then plopped a NeveRest motor (which is definitely a 550-sized motor) right in, with just a slight flat ground on the output shaft of the motor, one washer to take some room up inside, and a dab of CA glue to retain the drill gearbox pinion.

[Richard Wallace]

3620 has a couple of testers like these that were by-products of making the legendary "Nothing But DeWalts" project -- look up that CD white paper sometime.

Testers are made from the parts of the drill you don't use for that project.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Billfred

No -ish. I bought just the drill (about $15, without coupon because I couldn't wait) to power my Fight Night robot this summer. I then plopped a NeveRest motor (which is definitely a 550-sized motor) right in, with just a slight flat ground on the output shaft of the motor, one washer to take some room up inside, and a dab of CA glue to retain the drill gearbox pinion.

Between this and the comment on the recent rep you posted for me, it sounds like you like your new job.

Hmmm.. sounds like we should get a couple of cheap drills to use as "joysticks" to power our air cannon chassis by direct wiring when we're having controls issues. Last time we used starter switches -- worked OK, but we could only go forward, and only at fully on or off.

[s-neff]

I love these!

841's students just made one today off the 1939 video from 2012 that uses loose Anderson powerpoles instead of the screw terminals (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q4nHCzSer0)

When I was on 192, we actually did use the original nicad drill batteries in ours - the power limited prototypes were then guaranteed to work when they were on the robot. I think I saw a post from Seth earlier this summer saying that's still the standard operating procedure over there..

GeeTwo: We did *exactly* that for testing drivetrain modules on prototype chassis when i was on 192, with "extension cords" made of a twisted pair with Anderson connectors for the operators to keep some distance.

[nuclearnerd]

In the past we've used a motor controller and an andymark thrifty throttle for this purpose, but this is a nice cheap, compact substitute. Thanks!

[Seth Mallory]

We have been making then for close to 20 years know. We use the batteries that come with the 12 volt drills. This makes them potable and low powered. This reduces the chance burning the controls in the drill housing and damaging mechanisms that jam in early testing.. It also may not matter and we just keep doing the same way. All of our motors on our robots use Anderson power pole connectors.

The drill motors are great for projects. We use them on many off season projects. We add Anderson connectors and you can guess the power source for many of the projects.

Good to hear from you Sam.