We are experiencing difficulties with the motors and are looking for some advice. Yesterday, the driving team was using the robot when the steering suddenly failed. When we opened the robot up one of the blue wires (we left the original 10 ga. on) had unsoldered from the heat. We were wondering about two things, what to do with the wires (resolder it? clip it? unsolder and use different wires) and how to fix the heat from the motors (fans? heat sinks? exotic ideas?)
u are going to have to use a new motor b/c you cant resoder the wires back b/c the plastic on the motors will melt and deform. you should be able to turn it in as noraml wear and tare. on the heat problem, jus try and keep stuff away from the motors so there is more air getting to them and the shouldnt heat up as quick.
One of our wires came off and what we did was use a dremmel to take the solder off then attached a lug to the end piece. It’s holding pretty well and you won’t have to waste time waiting for a new motor
Since you can’t get it much worse, I am going to relate an observation I made a night or two ago. The brush assy on the drill motor is merely clipped in place by a small, plastic lever. This lever can be found by looking at the motor from the side, looking end on at the brush(try a magnifying lens). Between the wire terminal and the brush wire attachment you will see a small black lever holding the metal in place. If you carefully lift the lever, the brush assy will pop out. It rides in two slots like a drawer slide. I believe that most teams who have damaged motors have broken or melted this little lever and the result is a brush assy that will not stay in place.
I am not advocating that teams use this information to work around team update #7. It is simply an observation to repair a motor that might be used on a prototype or in design of a drive system. If heat is going to be a factor that could result in the melting of this lever, I would suggest that teams think about some method of holding the brush assy in place without interfering with motor cooling or operation.