Powering Jaguars with 24 volts

[hedgeberg]

Hey guys
My team wants to use 18v Banebots 775 motors.
As far as we can tell, we can't get anywhere near the potential of these things with our Jaguars being powered using 12 V. How best can we output at the necessitated 18v?
We've been looking at step up transformers, but those are both expensive and heavy, and we need to find some way to reach the maximum power output of these motors.

We're climbing to the top of the pyramid, and we need enough power to get the robot up that thing.

So yeah, how can we step up voltage for our Jaguars? Or, if we can't step up the voltage, is there a way without stepping up the voltage to power the 18 volt motors at full capacity?

Thanks!

[daneelshof]

Be sure to read Rules R32 and all under 4.1.8. I don't believe any ways of stepping up voltage to motors or servos are legal for FRC.

[theawesome1730]

No component on the robot can exceed 12 volts. Therefor it is unnecessary to need to power an 18 volt motor at 18 volts.

[hedgeberg]

Yeah, I probably should have read up on that. I figured that might be an issue.
Thanks guys.

[nighterfighter]

Originally Posted by theawesome1730

No component on the robot can exceed 12 volts.

I might be wrong, but what about the 24V solenoids?

[Tom Line]

The cRIO runs on 24 volts, and the solenoid breakout can be powered by 24 volts or 12 bolts, depending on the solenoids you need to power.

Motor controllers, however, cannot.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by nighterfighter

I might be wrong, but what about the 24V solenoids?

Those are allowed to be run at 24V, via the PDB's 24V board. Same place the cRIO gets power from.

The relevant rules are R39, R43, and R44.

For the RS775-18, the BaneBots site does list some of the specs at 12V--take a look at those.

[theawesome1730]

Sorry, should have specified motors and motor controllers. The above posts are correct though, the cRio does run at 24 volts as do some of the solenoids.

[Hugh Meyer]

The power supply that provides the 24 volts for the cRIO is only good for a few amps. It would not supply enought current for a motor.

-Hugh

[RyanN]

For future reference though, the BLACK Jaguar is specified to run from 5.5V-30V DC. We had an off season project that required 24V, and the BLACK Jaguar fit the bill.

The GRAY Jaguar is only specified to run up to 15V.

Rule wise though, no.