Magnetic Fields?

[Robostang 548]

On our bot for this year our primary drive motors are located extremely close to or electronics platform. One of the drive motors is parallel to our RC and about an inch away. It is also located about two inches above all of the victors. Should I be concerned about magnetic fields from the CIM motors potential affecting or robot's performance or even harming the RC. Also, we have our pwm cables running alongside and perpendicular to our power cables. Should we be worried about the fields made by these wires affecting the signals in the pwm cables?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Don,
Magnetic fields will have very little effect since they are not moving. The fields are stationary. The brush noise from the motors may prove to be a problem but only time will tell. Try routing the motor leads away from your RC and PWM cables or at least at right angles to the other wiring to mimize crosstalk. If you are having problems that can't be explained by anything else, it could be the brush noise. Brush noise is a high energy RF emission that is generated by the motor brush leaving a commutator segment. In the open motors like the FP you can see the sparks as the motor runs, which are the source of the noise.

[MattLi]

If you do have any more problems I highly doubt it is from magnetic fields. Check your programming to se if you have bugs. Try to change a battery. If you have a magnetic field around your robot parts then you have a lot more than a malfuntioning robot to worry about.