We feature a four bar on our robot. Up until yesterday our four bar had been working at the same capacity it had been for around the last month. However, it has began to give out when raising and lowering the bar near the top and bottom of it’s range.
Our first instinct was to analyze for any friction and discovered nothing. The next step was to unplug the motors and see if each one ran separately. Each motor had the same problem as if both of the motor were plugged in. We also noticed that the moment the single motor began to slow down, the unplugged motor (still connected to the axle) blinked the red light one time. The exact same thing happened on the other side.
We proceeded to take the motors off and put an axle with a gear on the end and turned it manually with a great rate of speed and noticed the light blinked once and the motor began to slow down even though it was not powered. Testing the motors with the brain showed that once they came to speed they began to scream. We have had this problem in the past and had just replaced the motors (but at a point we will just run out of spare motors).
One thing that comes to mind is the Cortex 393 Motor PTC, which sets a limit on the amperage a motor can handle. The V5 11W motors are also the same. As described in their description, “Stall current is limited to 2.5A to keep heat under control without affecting peak power output. Limiting stall current eliminates the need for automatic resetting fuses (PTC devices) in the motor, which can cause unintended motor outages. The 2.5A limit essentially removes the undesirable region of the motor’s performance curve, ensuring users do not unintentionally create stall situations.”
Has anyone had any experience with this issue and can provide us with a way to fix the motors