Feather weight speed controllers

**woody** · 20th April 2008, 17:36

im making a kind of prototype robot which runs on two 9.6 volt drill motors and gearboxes?
Simply replacing the drill chuck with a wheel of between 80mm - 100mm dia is standard practice in bot building.

**john_frizell** · 22nd April 2008, 00:20

Good decision not to go with the Viper M tronics for a feather. I once did a 6 kg feather with them, runing 2 x 9.6 volt drill motors. They worked but they were not quite enough and sometimes went into thermal cutout. I retired them to a 1.3 kg robot driven by electric screwdrivers and they have been performing well ever since.

**philip_taylor** · 24th May 2008, 07:58

Has anyone ever tested the Sabertooth controllers with a data logger to find out if they perform to their reported amperage in the arena?

**typhoon_driver** · 25th May 2008, 21:31

Sabretooths in my experience are far short of their 25Amps rated. They have blown twice on me so I have given up and gone back to 15amp electronize. Only blew on of them for the first time this weekend and even then its only the relay which will take a half hour to replace.

**m2xt** · 26th May 2008, 08:31

Philip, I have and they unlike another well known brand I could mention do perform to their published spec and that is also guranteed by Dimension Engineering. I have run a pair of 15A electronize controllers with eight 30W motors in parallel and never blown a relay. As I have mentioned before Gary, its all about knowing what your motors take under all conditions especially stall current which is what is the controller will see when suddenly reversing direction.

**philip_taylor** · 26th May 2008, 10:07

Thank you. It is good to be able to hear of others experience.

**typhoon_driver** · 26th May 2008, 12:18

No problem Paul. I was just passing on my experience with the controllers. They handled beautifully when they worked in hornet.

**woody** · 26th May 2008, 12:59

Only blew one of them for the first time this weekend and even then its only the relay which will take a half hour to replace.

As Paul has said in the other thread ...Gary, there is has to something a miss with your set up that is causing the problem with the Sabretooth but no idea what

Was it the same drive side blown each time the controller failed?...if so Id suggest you replace the drive & motor that the burnt Electronize relay was supplying.

**leorcc** · 26th May 2008, 13:02

I run 2 Graupner speed 900s on 13.1V and 24V on the Scorpion XXL without any problems whatsoever, no matter what pushing match i was in with any feather of ours.