Motors - another concept for FRC

[Richard Wallace]

Richard's first rule of motor selection: you pay for torque.

How you pay varies somewhat by application. It might be money, weight, space claim, service life, etc.; or combinations that include some or all of these 'costs'.

Richard's second rule: choose a motor that can take the heat.

How much heat must your motor take? Make sure you are confident of the answer to that question as early in the design process as you can, hopefully before your preliminary choice becomes so entrenched that changing it will be a major upset (or worse).

Quite often, FRC robot designers (and designers of many other things) don't really find out how much heat that is until they encounter a rare (but usually forseeable) overload. Think about how someone could overload your system.

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Back to the OP's main topic: As a motor designer I'd love to see more varieties of my favorite technology showcased; however, as a FIRST mentor and volunteer, I know that limiting motor selection to a short list is consistent with the system-thinking emphasis and tight schedule constraints that make FRC an inspirational challenge.