Team 1718, Beta Test, and The Talon Motor Controller

[Tom Line]

Just to change things up, Team 1718 will be doing Beta test again this year, but we'll be posting updates to our web page. Below is the week 1 results, which currently have nothing to do with LabView (since we're waiting on the DVD to be delivered). Instead, we begin with a look at the new Talon Motor Controller.

Fighting Pi 2013 Beta Website

[Jim Wilks]

Nice coverage of your initial work. Any reason why you are not testing the Talon with a CIM motor?

[Alpha Beta]

Looking forward to reading your reports each week. Great start.

You mentioned

In addition, this motor controller is NOT currently FRC legal.

Was the Talon officially included in your Beta test kit, or did your team decide to test it extra?

What all was included in the Beta testing materials this year?

[Clinton Bolinger]

Tom,

How many Talons do you guys have for testing?

Thanks for posting this information.

-Clinton-

[Tom Line]

We haven't gotten the new FIRST Beta test materials yet. They are still a couple weeks out on shipping them.

We kicked our Beta off early specifically to test the Talons. They are not a FIRST legal product and were supplied directly by our CrossTheRoad contact, not by FIRST. There is no connection to FIRST.

We've got 5 right now. The reason we aren't testing a CIM is because they've already been tested thoroughly with a CIM. Now we're interested in getting as wide a variety of motors tested as possible. We've got a handheld infrared temperature gage so most of our results will be temperature over time graphs with amperage draw and voltage overlayed.

Our current plan is to run one on our robot lift-winch from our 2010 bot (that winch ran near stall most of the time). We'll run one on a cim in a drivetrain just to try it out. We're going to try one on our shooter. We'll run one on our 2010 ball intake - that ran near stall quite a bit and is a window motor to boot. Then we're going to put a rope on the ball intake with a weight on the end, and cycle the window motor to attempt to get it to lock up. We may get around to beating them up on the Cims, but our priorty is to develop data for the other motors.

Hopefully we can get the majority of Talon testing done by the time Beta materials show up.

[Tom Line]

New Link is below:

http://www.fightingpi.org/Beta/Beta.html

[Jimmy Nichols]

Nice review. I got to see some of the Beta versions of these at CORI. I'm looking forward to working with some.

We are also a BETA test team and are anxiously awaiting our software and hardware, should we receive some hardware to test.

[Tom Line]

The link above has been updated with the student's test plan. We're taking other suggestions at puls4r@gmail.com, just remember we don't have many fancy tools like an o-scope etc.

[Jared Russell]

Stupid question...Victor fans fit on a Talon, right?

[Tom Line]

The Victor uses a Rotron 40x40x20, and the Talons we received use a Papst 40x40x10(?) fan. I'm not exactly sure of the height on the Talon fans - I didn't measure them. We can take a closer look Thursday when we're back in the room, and get some close-ups posted.

[Clinton Bolinger]

Suggest Fan(40x40x10 mm) for the Talon Spec Sheet: http://www.ebmpapst.us/allpdfs/400F.pdf

This was gathered from CTRE web site: http://www.crosstheroadelectronics.com/Talon.html

-Clinton-

[Tom Line]

Next Update is up.

http://www.fightingpi.org/Beta/2013_...12_Day_3.shtml

Linearity, Zero, and Deadband comparison testing. Initial results on trying to lock up a window motor under no-load conditions.

More to come Saturday night, one way or another. I wish there was more time in a day

I keep looking at those screw holes on the top of a Talon without a fan. I keep thinking someone's going to think of something unique to put there. A plastic clip to hold the talon in place? There's got to be something we can do with those other than mounting a fan.

[Tom Line]

I knew someone would come up with a unique use for those fan holes.... and it's something we can actually test! Expect a test plan update tomorrow night.

[Tom Line]

Update:
FIRST test plan posted on the beta test page, Day 4. In addition, looks like the LabView guys have come up with something new. We'll be playing with a LabView based robot simulator during beta this year.

[Tom Line]

Update - new linearity results with inductive load. Initial Labview results for tasks 1 and 2.