Anyone know that if I were to hook up the falcon cooling ports to our on board compressor, would I use a solenoid? If so a single or double.
Falcon Cooling?
I would assume you have other pneumatics on your robot I would recommend you hook up one of the already existing solenoid dump ports to the falcon. But to directly answer your question a single solenoid.
Ok so it can’t just be a regulator and an open circuit to the falcons?
It could be, but the cooling air will be flowing even when your ‘bot’s disabled or powered off. I see a Falcon getTemperature(); function/method but it will only work when the ‘bot is enabled, with it your code can control a solenoid.
Like the other aspects of ‘bot design, you’re need to decide based on how hard you plan to run the Falcons, and doing your own temp measurements.
Honestly, the current cooling port on the side seems like a gimmick, since it faces the can that houses the magnets, and not the coils.
The front faceplate holes used for mounting are a far better location for an air inlet, as they would blow directly on the coils (through the spokes of the can). If you can’t access those then I just wouldn’t bother.
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We have ours connected to the exhaust for the manifold we’re using. I don’t know if it makes any substantial difference, but it’s good to use it for something.
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It is certainly not a gimmick. Some of the beta teams worked with the cooling to see how effective it was and the answer was - very effective. One thing to note: compressors really heat up the air as they compress it. It would be better to set up a vacuum system on your robot CART to pull cool atmospheric air through the falcons while it’s sitting on your cart. I believe this may be the setup that Stryke Force is using this year.
Can I get a second opinion on the vacuum. I’m thinking of just stealing the vacuum from last years robot.
If going with a vacuum then look for a higher CFM rating at lower suction levels. Pulling air through the motor isn’t nearly as difficult as actually generating high negative pressure
What do u mean by vacuum? A compressor?
The compressor that we are going to use for after match is a rate of 1cfm, is that high enough?
Vacuum as is suction instead of pressure. Pneumatics is forcing air into while a vacuum such as a motor & impeller is creating suction pulling the air through. We just completed at Georgian college 4 falcon shifting gearbox no problem. A team with 4 Falcons and kop chassis & gearbox pushed full forwards while being pushed backwards by defense and blew some of their motors.
So plug the compressor in the other way?
Could I get a team number? As someone who is using 4 falcons on the KoP I would like more information. I might try messing with the ratios to add more torque than speed.
So plug the compressor in the other way?
Ideally, no? But that is what we did last year with good enough results.
Negative Ghostrider (at this point anyway). During Beta Testing we tried to melt the Falcons on our test-bed drive train (max weight). We determined it was an extremely unlikely under match-length timeframes by pushing a tank-drive (max weight) sideways for several minutes. YMMV when on the practice field though (or back to back matches).
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Ah OK. I thought one of your mentors mentioned using vacuum pumps to cool the motors. Must have been someone else. Thanks! I do stand by my statement that it makes a significant difference in motor temperature.
Lol. We have talked about a variety of methods to cool them, we haven’t implemented anything yet.
Anyone have photos of their cooling setups?
What else would you do instead of ice packs and compressor?
So our teams robot is a KoP drive with ball shifting gearboxes and 4 falcons (4152). The team that had the falcon issue on the KoP was 7664. I am not completely sure of the issue as I was a robot inspector and I found out from the LRI at the event.
Edit: I should also note we opened our motors and applied locktite to the shaft retaining screws because we read the note on vex’s website.
I don’t think plugging the compressor in backwards will generate a vacuum, I also don’t think that is legal.