Wiring the VAN Door Motors

Posted by Amol Mittal.

Student on team #115, Monta Vista Robotics Team, from Monta Vista High School and NASA Ames and 3COM.

Posted on 2/13/2000 8:30 PM MST

I am trying to wire the Van Door motors to the speed controllers, and have run into a slight confusion. It’s not really a big problem, but anyway. The table on Page 7 of The Robot in the manual, which gives suggestions on what gauge wire to use on what parts, says that the Van door motors should be wired with 10 gauge wire. Even the diagram on page 6 reads 10 gauge for the Van doors. The only problem is that the manufacturers of the van door motors have used 16 gauge wires.

So I’m wondering if I should use 16 gauge or 10 gauge to connect the motors to the speed controllers. Does it matter at all?

Amol Mittal

Posted by Nate Smith.

Other on team #66, GM Powertrain/Willow Run HS, from Eastern Michigan University and GM Powertrain.

Posted on 2/13/2000 10:24 PM MST

In Reply to: Wiring the VAN Door Motors posted by Amol Mittal on 2/13/2000 8:30 PM MST:

I don’t know for sure on this…you will probably want to e-mail FIRST on this one, something that I think I will do myself, since I know that we’re using those motors on our machine, and it is very soon to be handed over to the electrical team to get all the wiring done…

But anyway, I know that in one of the updates, they said it was allowed to use the wire pre-attached to the FP motors, which was a smaller gauge than the wire specified for those. I’m not sure if they will handle this one the same way or not, considering that the wires are not soldered to the motors…

I’m going to e-mail Eric on this one, and let everybody know what I find out…

Nate

Posted by Thomas A. Frank.

Engineer on team #121, The Islanders/Rhode Warrior, from Middletown (RI) High School and Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

Posted on 2/14/2000 10:03 AM MST

In Reply to: Wiring the VAN Door Motors posted by Amol Mittal on 2/13/2000 8:30 PM MST:

Use 10 gauge wire from the speed controllers up to the short wires the manufacturer provides; you can leave the manufacturers wires alone.

Same with the Fisher Price motors (although I’ve got to tell you, it’s worth the effort to run 10 gauge all the way to the F-P motors…we use just a very short stub of the manufacturers wire on the F-P motors to preserve the lugs)

Tom Frank