"Backdriving" Motors -- Safe for Victors?

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Ken Streeter

This would backdrive the motor for just a few seconds, surely for no more than a couple thousand rotations.

A couple thousand in a few seconds?

The back EMF produced by a motor is proportional to the motor shaft speed. If you turn the motor at 2 or 3 revs per second, you will see only a small voltage, but at 6000 RPM (100 revs per second) you'll see quite a good amount of power.

The Victors can handle reasonable energy from backdriving, as dtengineering stated, but don't go wild and expect it to last.

It is more likely your Victor failures are due to other factors, such as metal shavings in the Victors.

Teams should make it a practice to protect their Victors (all the electronics, really) from the mechanical folks, with their saws and files and stone axes...

Team 1676 uses a blanket to cover everything when there's work being done.

Don