Please read the closing notes on this post:
It should answer your questions! Thanks!
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I will for sure get a picture/product post up tomorrow. Before I left work today I saw the final production version + fans. We have a certain amount of these made for immediate order and will make in batches while we catch up on other FRC products.
We are in the process of adding a VF4SS in to help with in house production. Hoping in a month or so we are caught up on all in house products.
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Seeing them on an actual robot brought up a question - in that build in the photo are the 2x1s cut such that the tubing walls meets in the corner there with another piece that bolts them together between the swerve plates? I have seen a drawing somewhere that utilizes a corner piece to stiffen up that area. Is that still the recommended method for all the X2 modules?
Then a more curious question - In testing have your drivers mentioned anything about increased stability or turning performance of the robot from the X vs X2? Or any drastic changes in dynamics for taller robots?
With that much grip and wider wheels that must feel so much tighter than nitrile tread on smaller wheels when driving.
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Heatsink is up and we have a handful ready to ship. These are machined inhouse and come with high CFM fans. There is a 1/4"-20 hole machined on the side allowing them to be mounted directly to most camera/video equipment tripods.
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RC any chance you will also offer these wheels to fit your older modules or the SDS modules? (Otherwise a 3d printed wheel and cut down tread can work I suppose)
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I see that the heatsinks are labeled for home practice use. What would happen if a team were to try to use one on their robot? Does having the heatsink interfere with the radiation pattern?
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Questions I’ve got now that I’ve seen this heatsink:
- What’s the power input for that heat sink (or rather, the fans of it)?
- What happens if I don’t run a heat sink and cook too long?
Big difference if the failure mode is
rather than
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I think you mean
vs
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re: how do you power the fans - In a previous post it was mentioned that when the radio is powered through POE, the ports that are normally used for 12 V input will output power instead. That way you can power the radio over POE then the fans straight from the radio.
edit: found the post VH-109 radio outputting 12v power from 12v input - #3 by kiettyyyy
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That tracks.
And it seems from reading between the lines on https://frc-radio.vivid-hosting.net/getting-started/usage/mounting-your-radio/mounting-options#do-not-fully-enclose-the-radio that the overheat condition is latency, like something in the radio is being throttled. Which is good! I’ll always take lag over replacing $180 radios with any regularity.
But it also makes me interested to see some testing against a cheaper solution, like my go-to clip fan ($27 on a Warehouse Deal plus maybe an old phone charger), either alone or in combination with an off-cut of 1x2 for mounting. Getting a data set of temperatures and pings (and then, separately, what temperatures are possible through various means) shouldn’t be hard to compile.
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Does the radio overheat in normal match use?
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We haven’t seen overheats in indoor short-time use. Our overheats happen when practicing outside and having the robot sitting in the sun for hours with the black radio case right on top.
Thank you. Do you think that the radio would overheat in the fastest possible match turnaround scenario being 3 back to back matches with approximately 5 minutes between each one?
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This is our test setup we’ve been using for a few months. The heatsink is only needed for the VH-109/WCP-1538 in AP Mode when used at home. This is currently left on 24/7 and the students in the offseason practice 3-4 days a week with no issues. The setup doesn’t have heat transfer tape between the heatsink and the radio. This is an optional step to further help with cooling.
The power for the fans comes from the weidmuller port, we use the poe adapter to power the radio itself. From our experience you do not need the heatsink for the radio on the robot side even with extended practice.
What happens if you don’t use a heatsink on the ap mode? It just hits a temp limit and throttles during heavy/long practice times. The VH-113 has the heatsink + fan built in IIRC.
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Here is the docs page for the install.
Will the SuperCart and SuperStation be coming back into stock at all?
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Do we know when the VH-113 will be available?
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I wonder why they’re moving away from fabworks for those (if that’s what this means, and they aren’t just finding a new source for casters or something).
We love Fabworks and continue to use them as WCP’s #1 vendor for sheet and laser parts.
These parts mainly the supercart require a lot of kitting and unique components. So right now we are working with Fabworks to see what we need to do to keep these parts in stock and get them out the door faster. Whether that is a new supplier, method or something else entirely.
I hope to have an update sometime in December.
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