[OCCRA]: REALLY weird robot behavior

[Mike Martus]

I watched the match you talked about - I am one of the refs.

They were tripping the breakers on the drive motors trying to push. The drivers kept full throttle and the breakers could not re-set. Stalling the Dewalt motors (NOT USED IN FRC) will draw enough current to keep them dead.

If this happens leave the joy sticks alone for a few seconds then ease the power on.

The real answer is to look at your drive gear ratio and solve that problem...consider the size of your wheels also.

[whytheheckme]

Originally Posted by Mike Martus

If this happens leave the joy sticks alone for a few seconds then ease the power on.

[mini-rant] Or, if you were still able to obtain IFI's breaker panel, write a bit of code to automatically detect when these are getting tripped consistantly and automatically stop applying power to the motors for a second or two... [/mini-rant]

What Mike said is completley consistant with what was going on. If you were stalling out the motors (which are capable of drawing too much current), then you wouldn't have 'control' anymore (because the motors are disabled).

I completly agree with Mike; redesign your system so that pushing won't cause stalling. It sounds like stalling your De-Walt motors will cause problems.

Jacob

[SWIM]

Originally Posted by Mike Martus

I watched the match you talked about - I am one of the refs.

They were tripping the breakers on the drive motors trying to push. The drivers kept full throttle and the breakers could not re-set. Stalling the Dewalt motors (NOT USED IN FRC) will draw enough current to keep them dead.

If this happens leave the joy sticks alone for a few seconds then ease the power on.

The real answer is to look at your drive gear ratio and solve that problem...consider the size of your wheels also.

We're in first gear and have a ridiculous amount of mechanical advantage in the driveline. I'm sure you saw us push 47 around. If anyone should be reconsidering their gearing, I'm sure it's not us. In any case, I guess that's the answer I was looking for. We replaced the 30 amp fuses with 35's, and I'll try not to put that much strain on the bot. Moreover, if just not touching the controls for a second fixes things, then that's perfect.

We should be good, thanks alot everyone.