Force-Driving motors from M+/- End of Victors

[Danny Diaz]

Apparently several members on our team like to bypass using the RC/OI in order to programmatically move motors when they're doing work on the robot that involve our robot arm; since they cannot get direct access to the motor to power it directly with a 12v battery, they touch 12v battery leads to the M+ and M- terminals on the victors directly. When they do this the RC powers up really quick, runs while they have the leads connected, then powers down when they stop powering the motors (we don't have a backup battery connected right now). Several members have asked me if this is safe - they're afraid that may be possibly damaging components.

I told them that the Victor is naturally designed to withstand some serious currents that are generated by the motors (when you drive motors and then immediately throw them into reverse, you get a SERIOUS current spike between the Victor and the motor) so it should be relatively safe to do what they're doing, it just weirds you out because the RC and hardware connected to it are being powered up when they do that. However I didn't know the ramifications if a competition battery was also hooked up to the robot when they power the motors with a completely different battery, so I told them to make sure the robot battery was unplugged if they do that.

Is there anything else I should be aware of when students are doing this? Can this damage electrical components?

-Danny