Help With Uneven Motor Acceleration

Technical Technical Discussion
1

Hey everyone, we’re having issues with our bot’s conveyor mechanism whereby one set of wheels accelerates faster and coasts for longer when compared to the other side. In testing, this has caused the cube to rotate diagonally when travelling up the ramp, causing it to get stuck.

Things we’ve tried:

  • Verifying that the motors run at the same speed once accelerated (they do)
  • Switching out the motor that accelerates slower, issue still persists
  • Greasing both gearboxes equally
  • Removing all the chaining and verifying that all the shafts spin smoothly
  • Swapping some bearings for smoother ones
  • Ensuring that the Talon SRX’s are both on coast
2

Are you sure that the gearboxes are the same ratio, and the chains/belts/whatever are the same tension?

Sounds like it could be an overtensioned belt/chain on the slow side, or more likely the gear ratios are off by a couple of teeth.

3

Do you have voltage ramping enabled for one side? These settings persist even if you don’t have the line that sets it anymore.

4

SOLVED! This was the issue, looks like there were residual settings left from last year. Thanks!

5

Being retired for the past 12 years, I don’t know what the fashionable term is these days… “lessons learned”… “corporate learning”… “continuous improvement”… but what does your team do when something like this happens, to ensure it won’t happen again ?

6

Is there any reason to have the two sides capable of driving at different speeds? If not, I would suggest attempting to find a way to mechanically link them together.

7