A late-night drivetrain brainstorm

[sciguy125]

Originally Posted by Billfred

if one of the CIMs releases the magic smoke, a switch could theoretically cut the other motor to allow you to drive 2WD for the rest of the match

I'm wondering if this even needs to be considered. What are the chances that the motors will burn out anyway? Much less in a critical match. Barring Murphy's Law, I don't see much need to expect a motor failure in a FIRST robot. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm scheduled for an electrocution for questioning Murphy's Law...

Now on a side note, I've been trying to figure out how to get 4 separate motors without a significant weight increase. Thanks. I've been working on an omnidrive system similar to this. My wheels and motors are on the way right now. The little version is cheap, the FIRST scale version could get expensive. In the mean time, I've been working on a speed controller. In my frugalness, I've decided to spend $30 and 2 weeks to design and build something rather than $200 to just buy it. It's able to read a pot, now all I need to do is figure out how to get it to read hobby PWM. Then after a trip to Radio Shack for boards and a few hours of soldering, I'll have 4 little speed controllers for my project. Sorry about getting a little off topic there...