pic: Too much power?

[ryaneogilvie]

Originally Posted by Cash4587

Good to know. Last time I had spoke with you guys I was unaware of your caution. I will be careful, and put some LEDs on our bot to have a visual voltage reading like you guys use on yours.

As the driver for this years robot, I never had to worry about tripping the main breaker during the match. LEDs or some indicators are useful but I've never had to pay attention to them because we have an efficient drivetrain, short wiring, and we are traction limited. I know last years robot had only 6 cims but that robot could trip the breaker because of the massive amount of chain which caused the drive train to be very inefficient and pull way more current than necessary. The caution we give is in the design: Direct drive and only one belt to the traction wheels allow the wheels to roll with little friction; Very short battery wires reduce the amount of current that needs to be drawn; and traction limited will avoid a complete stall of the motors that will surely pop the main breaker.

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Did you guys do butterfly / octacanum? I don't have empirical evidence to back this up, but I would be tempted to say your drivetrain is loaded a lot differently than a typical 6WD and thus things might be different. The drive style lends itself to avoiding defense more than trying to force your way through it. The omni wheels eliminate turning scrub which is a large source of high current draw in tank drive robots. I believe you guys also did 4 CIM / 4 mini, but that shouldn't be a *huge* difference over 6 CIM / 2 mini.

We use Tex Coast (which is our name for butterfly), and yes tex coast drive lends itself to both have maneuverability and speed while having traction and power when you need it. For the same reason you mentioned above you can avoid pulling to much current however, the design is a little more complicated. For motors we originally used 4 cim 4 minicim but switched to 6cims 2 minicims which you have to be careful about, but it can be done.