What motors power your drivetrain?

[Khalicl13]

I deleted my original thread because I realized a flaw in my thinking. (Don't worry, no one replied. Unless.... j/k)

As a result of some heated discussions in my team, I though I'd ask the collective FIRSTers.

Q: What motors do you plan to power your drivetrain? Is it a hybrid system with more than one type of motors?

Before you respond, consider the following:
1. Power
2. Current draw
3. Ease of machining
4. and anything else I skipped

If you also give me some sort of reasons behind your thinking, it would help me out very much. Who knows, may be I'll even quote you at my next meeting! I'll be sure to let you know if I use your quotes.

C'mon. What are you waiting for. Go to the polls!

[Wetzel]

WE may be reconsidering the chalupas due to their heat problems...
If you don't know what I am talking about, run them for about 15 minutes no load and then burn your hand checking to see if it is running warm.

[KennethToronto]

how exactly would you use the Atwood motors AND the fisherprice?

[thedillybar]

There's a couple of ways.

Gear the chalupas and FP motors to the same free speed RPM. Mate the 2 motors to a gearbox (that you've custom designed for this purpose) and then drive the wheels with the gearbox.

Gear the chalupas and FP motors to the same free speed RPM. Use 1 motor to drive each wheel (4 wheel drive).

[KennethToronto]

Originally posted by thedillybar
There's a couple of ways.

Gear the chalupas and FP motors to the same free speed RPM. Mate the 2 motors to a gearbox (that you've custom designed for this purpose) and then drive the wheels with the gearbox.

Gear the chalupas and FP motors to the same free speed RPM. Use 1 motor to drive each wheel (4 wheel drive).

But why use two motors to drive a gearbox when one would be sufficient?

[AdamT]

What about those teams with more then one drive trains?

[Wetzel]

More than one drive train? As in a halftrack type device? Wheels and treads? Or something more exotic? Care to elaborate?

[mtaman02]

8 wheel drive train using 2 drill motors. thats alot of chain that we used and we use even more when we go to readjust / install a new motor since the motor never sits the same way twice

[Rick]

8 wheel drive?! i dont think so. true 8 wheel drive means you have one motor for each wheel not 2 spread across all 8. at least thats what ive been told

[mtaman02]

2 motors power our 8 wheels


left side 4 wheels 1 motor and about 3 dif sproket sizes
right side 4 wheels 1 motor and about 3 dif sproket sizes


and lots of steel chain.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally posted by Ricksta121
8 wheel drive?! i dont think so. true 8 wheel drive means you have one motor for each wheel not 2 spread across all 8. at least thats what ive been told

Not necessarily. Would you say a 4-wheel drive robot is not "true 4-wheel drive" without independent motors for each wheel? Whether a robot is 2, 4, 6, or 8 wheel drive depends not on the number of motors, but the number of powered wheels.

[RBrandy]

TOBOR 5 uses the chalupa motors with a 30:1 gear ratio

[Mike Schroeder]

We used regeared Chiapas and had probs at Nj so put heat sinks on the Motors they work fine now and has enormus power, JUST ASK MOE ... jp

[Andy A.]

Two Drills for the past 3 years.

Our 'bots have often focused on speed rather then beefy drive trains. The extra pushing power of a 4 motor drive would have been nice, but didn't really fit into our game plan. Two drills are the most bang for the buck (the buck being a number of things... weight, current, time). While being powerful, their transmission allows some flexibilty going into the match. With a third drill motor in the kit for a replacement, they make the perfect drive motor for most all FIRST 'bots. If you don't use the drills on your drive, I'd be very surprised.

So while having the Atwoods or FP motors running with the drills would have been very nice (and were planned for '02), those motors are either more usefull elsewere or were to heavy.

Chances are 95 will stick with the drills. What can I say? We have this thing about really heavy (complicated) ball pick up devices. At least we're good at something right?

-Andy

[sanddrag]

We've used 2 drills in 2001. In 2002 we tried to use 2 drills and 2 chias but we had some gear stripping problems so we ditched the Chias. In 2003, we will definitely have 2 drills and 2 Chias.

Note: The full name is Chiaphua.