2003 Drill Motors Good or Bad?

[sanddrag]

They survived through 19 matches in Phoenix and 15 matches in LA. The wire thing was not a rule, just a suggestion. We replaced the stock wires with finely stranded 8 guage. We had the motors and trannies in the mount provided in the kit. Additionally, the chiaphua was geared to the same shaft the drill was spinning. We had no problems whatsoever during use. We did not modify the trannies or mounts in any way. The shifter stayed in place and the clutches never slipped and the coupler never backed off

YAY for FIRST for providing an excellent kit.

The one problem we did have is that we cracked the thin part of the black plastic endbell of one of the motors during soldering the new wires on. A little 5 minute epoxy and it was stronger than the day it was new.

*We did not use the helical gearboxes.

[ngreen]

The drill motor assembly worked great for our robot. After our regional we had to replace both of the drill motors. But that was because in our final regional match, we got on top of another robot and their van door motor managed to get lodged between our two motors. The broke a set of the FIRST mounts and mauled the drill motors. But they worked perfectly other than that and never got hot and unsoldered, I love muffin fans.

[Kevin A]

Hello,

Most of the problems sound like they are coming from the transmissions, not the motors. I love the whole setup, but if they provide us with four of everything my job as the gearbox man will be removed!

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I like the motors but they do have their problems.
The brush assy is designed to be inside a housing not in the open so it does not have any strain relief or protection. An enclosure or tywrap fixed that.
The quality control on the soldering of the wires was pretty bad. In some cases, the connection heated due to the bad soldering and eventually let the wires fall off. Better soldering techniques at the factory would cure that. The factory I would guess is already aware of this problem in the number of warranty repairs due to motor failure the drills are having.
If the motor was used with the supplied transmission then there was enough input air flow but if you used the FIRST mount, it blocked some of the fan output. Those teams that used this transmission/motor/supplied gearing were usually OK if they didn't try to couple to large diameter drive wheels and kept all the shafts in alignment. Friction induced by side loading, lack of sufficient bearings, shaft misalignment, too large a drive wheel and failure to remove the locking rollers all contributed to a high rate of failure caused by overcurrent heating.
In other words, "Know thy enemy". The new motor is a welcome addition.

[Noah]

The motors work great! The transmission is junk, and the mounts didn't work well at all, but the motors worked perfectly!

[Joel Glidden]

We loved the new drill motors this year. Though, it would have been nice if they were easier to mount - like the CIMs. We made a single stage planetary gearbox that matched the drill motors to the CIM's no-load speed and copied the CIM's mounting holes. This let us use the same spur gearboxes for our drills that we used for our CIMs (we used four motors to drive six wheels - ten wheels if you count dualies individually).

Here's an exploded view of the planetary stage and motor housing. The housing also has a cutout and mounting holes for a muffin fan, which is not shown.

-Joel

[Andrew]

I want to second both Al's and Joel's comments.

If you paid attention to the details (shaft alignment, cooling, protecting the fragile brushes with a shroud, using good soldering technique if you had to repair the wires), then the drill motors were outstanding.

[computhief263]

in my opinion the new bosch were more of a pain in the butt then last years. my tea used the bosch last year and didnt have a single problem w/ them all season , but the new ones are weaker and very easy to break. the bosch at the top of our lifting arm broke 3 times till we made a few adjustments.


but i dont think the extra power was worth the trouble the gear box cant take as much stress and the nose of the assembly can came WAY too easily

[team222badbrad]

in my opinion the new bosch were more of a pain in the butt then last years



Take it to the years when we got the old Bosch motors.....

Remember all the troubles we all had with them????

[Adam Y.]

They survived through 19 matches in Phoenix and 15 matches in LA. The wire thing was not a rule, just a suggestion.

I believe it originally said in the rules that you must!!! change the wires in the drill transmissions.

[the doors]

Our team liked the new motors...we coupled a CIM motor with a drill motor and geared the two through a drill transmission. The transmissions did cause a slight problem, however, because there were not a lot of good places to hold them...overall, the power boost was appreciated!

[Tyler 178]

Our drill motors worked good. We didn't have to change them after competing in a whole regional. They probably would have been fine if we went to nats too.

We did need to make a keyway in the shaft though, because otherwise, our little set screws didn't do squat. Our gears on our axles that drove the chains we used kept slipping. But once we made a keyway in our shaft, it was fine.

I was happy with the new drill motors since we were pretty much a rookie team. We only had like 3 people on the team that competed last year, and their robot last year didn't work.

New motors do level the playing field, and I am glad FIRST introduced these motors.

[Andrew Schuetze]

I'm planning a short summer work session and would like to work with the drill motors. Anybody have source information handy? I need to process a purchase order ASAP. I found a Bosch website but didn't have the model number et cetera handy.
Thanks,

APS

Toltechs
#499
San Antonio, Texas

[Andrew]

You should be able to look through the supplier information in the 2003 manual and find the drill motor supplier. I believe it is S&K Tools (or something close).

I pulled this from another thread:

Originally posted by Andy Baker
FYI...

I just ordered some spare drill motors and gearboxes for our team from S-B Power Tool in New Jersey (908-769-8208).

These are the costs:

Motor (part# 2-607-022-890) = $23 each
Gearbox (part# 2-606-200-917) = $50 each

I didn't even have to tell the guy which part numbers they were, he just knew which ones I needed when I mentioned FIRST Robotics.

This is the same source that we have purchased the drill motors from over they past years, and they always get the order right, quickly, and with good service. I think that they are charging $6 for shipping.

Andy B.