speed controllers

what have you guys been using as drive speed controllers, ive been using gears ed ones, and i dont like them to much, i run about 24volts

For what weight class? 12-15 pounds? 120 pounds? 3 pounds? The answer is different for each of these.

15lb sorry

everyone is using banebots or scorpions

are they reliable? what models?

Banebots: http://banebots.com/pc/ELECTRONICS/BB-1245

Scorpions: http://robotcombat.com/products/0-SCORPXXL.html

First of all, did you know that, immediately after adding a link, if you hit the wrong key it puts in empty links, and if you hit the wrong key again (a different one, but Lord knows which combination) you go to the previous page and LOSE YOUR COMMENT?

As you might guess, this has happened to me today. . . twice.

Ok, now that I've got that off my chest. . .

The Banebots 12-45 are really popular, prolly cause they are small, light, and not too expensive. But they cannot handle anything higher than about 14V, which means that Lipos are limited to 3s. Also, the signal wires break off really easily, and we have had some difficulty with them consistently recognizing the same signal as 'zero stick.' As far as I know, they cannot be programmed, nor calibrated.

We had a lot of Victor ESCs from our time with the FIRST competition, and some of them can handle high voltages. They are also pretty durable, with high current handling capability (especially if you use the included fan). They are easy to calibrate, but not programmable per se. On the other hand, they are quite large for a 12 or 15lb robot and not too cheap either! Worst of all, they require a signal booster if you are using a standard RC receiver, and finally the signal wires can sometimes come out during battle (tho there are ways to prevent this).

Some people use the Scorpion XXL which is nice because it does both left and right sides of your drive, and has a way to change your drive during battle if your robot gets inverted. It costs twice what a BB12-45 does, but you only need one, so it's a comparable price. The specs say it can do 28 volts and 20 amps (the power capability seems low to me, and it isn't clear if that is per side or overall). Also, I've only owned one of these, and I did NOT like the way the output power wires connected (seemed flimsy). It also needs to be wrapped in something to keep it from shorting against the metal interior of your robot.

We are still in search of a good alternative to the BB12-45, particularly one that can handle 5s Lipo and 40 amps or so, but pricewise and spacewise we haven't found one we like yet. Please let me know if you discover a good one.

thanks for the links, ive never heard of that flip control thing, seems awesome, is it really worth it? i mean its possible to drive perfectly fine upside down, but it takes practice, how hard is it program something like that?

banebots really do not like too much power

If your bot is perfectly symetric it is possible to drive upside down just like right side up, but depending on how your weight is distributed it might make it hard to control. Of course you'll need a reversible weapon ESC also (depending on the rx/tx your using you can set it all to one switch i believe)

Have you guys managed to actually keep you weapon attached yet?

hahah yes, im assuming youve seen the nationals vid? thats the only time we've had that happen it was because a team mate cut the axle to short and we have no where to test our weapon so we didn't think it was going to be a problem, but then we found out first match...we still got 5th at nationals that year even though we couldn't keep hold of our weapon

i thought i saw it happen in massachutes too, guess not

I think i was thinking it was when you got stuck on the front risers

o well haha

yup we got stuck on the horns/sliders in the match against uknight, were you at that comp, it waS RATR 5 I THINK

Cody wrote:

banebots really do not like too much power

Well, the BB12-45s don't like high voltage. They are actually rated at 40 amps of current.

Scorpions can handle higher voltage, but their current rating is half of the banebots.

You see, that's the thing that's maddening to me--both are pretty good, but neither one is really all there.


Also, I forgot to mention that the BB and Scorps have a BEC, but the Victors do not.

scorpion XXL's are discontinued, in that the piggybacked chips have been failing in many cases.

the XL is still available, but is rated much lower.

Ithink that Mike (NCR) has found some escs that look like a brushed version of a castle mamba max, but while rated much higher, they are also not cheap.

MLEC burnt out a bunch of XXL's at nats last year, making brushless alternatives look somewhat inviting.

chris posted about the discountinued XXLs right after i posted

He said there are new ones in the works but with how long the wait for the sidewinders been i wouldnt hold your breath.

Do it right just go brushless.....

I saw a video of the uknight fight on youtube

thanks for the help guys

What about the sabertooth 2X25?
i have used them for 15# and never had issues with them. Has anyone else used them and found faults?


http://robotcombat.com/products/0-SABER2X25-RC.html

I bought a pair of Sabers and they didn't work well at all. Calls to DE resulted in finger pointing at my Spektrum gear.....duh...so that was a total loss, in that RMP wouldn't take them back.

the RP XL is very good, if you don't go overboard on power. The XXL's are sketchy. We relied on them exclusively, but too many of them burnt out. We have since converted 3 of 5 bots to small brsuhless setups.

We've found that as long as you can light up the tires, you don't need sensored or large motors.

jmo

I'm pretty sure we used that exact sabertooth esc last year. In my opinion I think it worked relatively well but it's downfalls are in how unnecessarily complicated you have to wire it which can result in wires being pulled out etc. and how large it is which makes it hard to work around.

Ive heard more people having trouble, in the sense of them not working properly in the first place, with DE products than any other esc i think

My experience with them were pretty good, setup was strait foward enough and wiring wasn't much of an issue. They were a bit large, mostly from the heat sink, i would agree with that.
the only problems i had with it was if the battery got low enough on power they would reset the zero for the controls, enough that triming would not work, only by switching the controller off and on again would these values be reset. but i guess thats not the SC's fault, the batteries didn't get charged enough.

Refering to the Banebots, is mixing the controls posible with these? also, what kind of voltage are they safe to be used at?

The scorpion XL seem a little small on amps for 15#, i will most likely be using p60's and rs550 motorw for drive, would the scropions be a good choice for this setup? 12-24v?

it is fun to talk about robots! lol

I agree...in a 15 with 550 motors, an XL wold not be a great choice

Actually we did have problems with setting the neutral position for the motors but we blamed that on the incompatibility of our receiver and controller because they didn't bind properly.

Quote :

Refering to the Banebots, is mixing the controls posible with these? also, what kind of voltage are they safe to be used at?

You can't mix with the speed controller itself but you can buy mixers for them or just do the mixing through the controller. Their voltage is rated at 6 to 24 volts of direct current.
I'm not sure with what they can actually handle amp-wise or how often they overheat because we've yet to extensively use ours so the other teams will offer more helpful advice.

yea Jesus that was the one we used last year, at least it looks like it, maybe a different model.

it definitely had some binding issues (it may have been the receiver) and as u said the wiring was crazy, banebots esc are just much much better quality and simplicity, not to mention that have their own BEC so you use "Opto" weapon speed controllers