FP 9003 vs 9012 (was Attention Robot Inspectors:)

[eugenebrooks]

By definition, motors supplied by FIRST in the kit should be legal.

The notion that the 9012 and the 9003 are equivalent, however,
is a stretch. The 9012 has the internal current protection
and the 9003 does not. This difference is huge when a motor
is operated close to full power to lift a robot. We had to specifically
modify our robot lift to change the gearing to keep the internal current
limiter in the motor from popping midway through the lift, even
though the circuit breaker for the victor controlling the motor was
the 20 amp one.

The 9012 motor is easly obtained, although you might have to
sort through the parts that Fisher Price wants to sell you. If
the 9003 is declared legal we will happily swap the 9012 out
to ditch the internal current limiter.

Eugene

Originally Posted by Rob

Hi Guys,

After doing a bit of research on the 2 motors (9012 and 9003) and talking to FIRST, we are making much ado about nothing. The two motors are virtually identical and should be interchangeable. Recall that both were in the 2006 KOP with some teams getting one style and other teams getting other styles.

Looking at the 2006 tips and good practices document, the motors have almost the exact same performance.

Link to the document showing the motors are almost identical is below:
http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/oth...ices_Rev_D.pdf

I would strongly suggest that FIRST just allow both 9012 and 9003 motors and let this non-problem go away.

Either way, we had some 9012 motors shipped to us so we will be safe either way.

Best of luck to everyone,

RAZ