Falcon 500s vs NEO vortex'

FIRST General Forum
1

We have 8 falcons and 8 NEO and are not sure which to use. We would need to go for a chain drive base if we use falcons or a belt drive bas for NEO which is easier to build. The falcon 500 software has risks of costing money which we would rather not pay. I’m wondering if the increased power of the Falcons are worth all this trouble?

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2

You used both terms, so help us help you:

NEO, or NEO Vortex? Either can get you a thoroughly competent drive base, but the accessories required are going to be different.

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3

The falcon 500 software has risks of costing money which we would rather not pay

the specific features that cost money in the falcon software you will very likely not have to use, they are nice-to haves most of these features don’t exist on the NEO in the first place.

4

NEO vortex

Thanks for the reponse

5

Our programmers like the CTRE programing environment better the current state of the Rev stuff. Falcons have the issue of NLA. I would not use the V3 Falcons because of the way the shaft attaches to the motor.

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No Longer Available, as in discontinued.

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I suspect you are correct. Vex has finally taken them of their website. CTRE still shows them as out of stock rather than discontinued. I doubt they ever plan to restock them though. The Kraken is essential a better version anyway. Programmatically they essentially interchange.

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This is potentially less of an issue, however, because a Vortex can (physically) replace a Falcon.

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Heavy emphasis on the word “physically”, as the only way they’d be the same from a controls standpoint is if you took the lowest-common-denominator PWM control method. That’s fine if you are planning on it, but if you had a mechanism reliant on CTRE libraries you’re in a world of hurt to port them to some other setup (whether REV’s or simply PWM).

To that end, I’d be leery about using a Falcon in competition duty unless I had a Kraken in-hand with the matching output widget.

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Or spare Falcons. If the OP is constructing only one drive chassis and using 4 of their 8 Falcons (sounds like it is a differential drive), they could have spares available.

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