So while crating up our bot last night and preparing our spare parts, we discovered that the RS-550 motor that Banebots ships attached to their 42mm gearbox is different from the one supplied in the KOP. (note that the spare 550 motors we purchased from Banebots are the same as the one in the KOP).
I am not sure if we are the only fools not to notice this and ship the wrong motor on our bot, but I guess it’s better to know now than next Thursday…At least we now have a fun project for the pits on Thursday.
Perusing the Banebots website, I find some conflicting information. They offer the KOP RS-550 for sale, but also list another version of RS-550 (not for sale, about 40% less powerful). Looking at the pictures, the less powerful one resembles the one shipped on the 42mm planetary. Looking at the performance specs listed for the 42mm, they show as the “more powerful” motor version.
Anyway, the bottom line is that we have to change to legal motors on Thursday, and may or may not be getting more power as a result. If you are in the same situation, I would also suggest replacing the junk screws that come installed in the planetary. We used the 64:1 which is 3 stages, and the screws are M3 x 45mm.
To add some detail to this, the RS-550 motors do have two different product codes
M1-RS550-120 : This one comes with the 42mm gearboxes, and is NOT legal M2-RS550-120 : This is the more powerful, FIRST legal motor from the KOP
The two look very similar at a first glance, but they have different vent patterns on the end, and the “M2” version has plastic fan blades attached to the armature, while the “M1” version does not.
Thanks for the heads up! we are using three banebots transmissions on our bot. two of which are going to be outfitted with the fisher price motors, but one was going to remain the banebots motor that came shipped on the transmission. I didn’t even think to look to see if there were any differences. Oh well I guess that’s just a bit more work than we had hoped for Thursday practice. Thanks again for posting on this!
On this page, you will find two separate links to the KOP M2 motor as the replacement motor for this gearbox.
In addition, if you look at the gearmotor specs listed on the above page, multiply the no-load RPM of 134 out by the 144:1 gearbox reduction, and ye gets 19296 RPM, which is the RPM of the **M2 KOP **motor, not the non-legal M1.
I do wonder if perhaps Banebots is shipping some gearboxes with the older M1 motor alongside gearboxes that have the newer M2’s. It seems all new gearboxes are ADVERTISED on the Banebots website as having the M2’s installed. The Banebots rep I spoke with indicated the M1’s were phased out as the preferred 550 “months” ago.
I am waiting for a response from FIRST/Banebots before proceeding. Before the robot shipped, I actually didn’t check to see if I could tell any physical difference between the motor on the robot and the one in the KOP. I suppose I will check out our spares and see how they compare.
The proper response from FIRST to me would seem to be that if teams are comfortable using a reportedly 40% less powerful motor that is otherwise identical to the KOP RS-550, physical size, mounting pattern, and all, and are happy with its current performance on the robot, they should not be forced to waste time and money paying for and swapping in a more powerful motor at their first event because they were provided with incorrect information.
The proper response from Banebots to me would be to first communicate whether M1 42mm gearmotors are still being sold alongside and characterized as M2’s. If they find this is the case, they must go through their current 42mm inventory and replace any M1 motors they find with M2’s. This will bring them in compliance with the performance specs advertised on their website.
I’m our only student welder and I often find myself making the parts I HATE to weld 3 or 4 or 5 times. All i can think when I’m welding is god I hate this what did I do?!?!
Wait, really? That’ll be a fun project for Thursday. I do remember the ones that came with our gearbox looking a tiny bit different, but just shrugged it off since they were both RS-550 motors, not realizing there was more than one kind. Argh.
And not really while making spare parts, but I expect to find writing autonomous code without the robot difficult come the first fix-it window that can be used for upgrade parts. Of course, having the robot but not having a field wasn’t a whole lot better.
Does anyone have any idea where to order the belt provided in the kit?? The 5mm toothed belt, 10 feet of it, in the gates package. I cannot find anywhere online to order it, anybody know where we can get some of it? It’s a vital piece we need to back up
