AM servo delayed or no shifting

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Goldeye

Using a different 7.2v battery than the one provided in the KOP is no doubt illlegal.

Incorrect.

<R73> The 7.2V Robot Control backup battery must be connected to the Robot Controller as
described in the Robot Controller manual. The 7.2v battery should be charged to at least
7.0v before entering a match. As a replacement for the FIRST supplied battery, any other
commercially available 7.2V NiCad battery pack may be used.

[les chortos]

We had similar issues - but we found as the gear boxes were shifted more and used more -some of the rough "machining " burrs and such came off and they worked pretty consistant. From what I saw you need about 1-2 hours of driving on the chassis and a lot of up and down shifting to "break them in" - also the battery issue caused us grief. - you definitely need lots of juice if you want them to shift 10-20 times during a match. - we also programmed a slight delay 100 milliseconds 1/10 th second from the time the shift button was pressed to the time the gear would shift. - this would remove the load from the 2 gears in mesh and give the servo an easier - lesser load - to overcome when shifting. Basically if you were in a tough pushing match (low gear) and wanted to shift to high gear- the servos need to over come the gear loads- it would be very hard to do. - but by adding a delay in the motor power- it relieves the gears loads and thien slips into gear smoothly. - try it.- ask your programmer- to add a .100 second delay in power to the drive motors. pwm=127 or "0 rpm" . shift servos- then add power again. it should slip into gear within 1 or 2 eye blinks and go - it will appear to be seamless and not slow you down much- if at all.

good luck!

[Qbranch]

hey on the backup battery problem you could consider soldering up the IFI suggested onboard backup battery charger, found on this link.

it charges the backup battery off the main, but has a diode so that if the main is lower then the backup, then the source for the RC's power is the backup battery alone.

-q

[Gdeaver]

Your problem may not have anthing to do with the servo's, Battery, Trans or code. Did you update to the latest master code and have your radio updated. Our team had problems with the ramp deployment trigger and I'm convinced it was the Radio issue. We did not upgrade to the latest master code because of lack of time and went thru the regional with a delay problem with ramp release. You could have a similiar problem.

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by haroony341

how long is the recommended charge time? i know you cant leave them on for too long

You can purchase a "smart" battery charger that uses a microprocessor to monitor charging and will not overcharge or damage your battery. I don't know what the model 177 uses offhand is, but some googling would turn up potential models. Feel free to visit us in our pit in Atlanta to ask.

Originally Posted by Qbranch

hey on the backup battery problem you could consider soldering up the IFI suggested onboard backup battery charger, found on this link.

it charges the backup battery off the main, but has a diode so that if the main is lower then the backup, then the source for the RC's power is the backup battery alone.

-q

Careful with this circuit. Lots of people who know more about electrons than me were questioning its performance at the beginning of the year, and I don't know if FIRST or IFI has made any modifications to improve it. Generally, my experience is that if you switch out your backup battery once or twice a day you'll be fine.

[haroony341]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Your problem may not have anthing to do with the servo's, Battery, Trans or code. Did you update to the latest master code and have your radio updated. Our team had problems with the ramp deployment trigger and I'm convinced it was the Radio issue. We did not upgrade to the latest master code because of lack of time and went thru the regional with a delay problem with ramp release. You could have a similiar problem.

we did have the radio updated at chesapeake and as far i know, we did update the master code, but i know our RC's tether port broke so we got a replacement during chesapeake from IFI. i dont know if that could have been caused some of the issues.