Choosing the right Motors for the right application is important to the success of a good robot. Here is our current recommendations for what applications a motor is best for. For each motor it’s important to select an appropriate gear ratio for it’s application in a Mechanism. You can learn more about Choosing Ratios here.
Comparing Motors
Recalc has a page dedicated to comparing the attributes of motors you can find here.
Brushed Motors
Currently we do not use any brushed motors. Brushed motors have lower efficiency than their brushless counterparts. They also do not have integrated encoders on them, which allow for much easier packaging for fine tuned control. The last robot we used brushed motors on was 2022 Robot Leia.
Brushless Motors
We exclusively use brushless motors currently. The first time we used a brushless motor was on 2020 Robot Tanner.
Kraken X60
This is our primary go-to motor. Great for any high load situation (eg. Drive Train, Shooter,Climber, etc.) preferred in low load (eg.Intake,Indexer,Turret, etc.) situations as well. This motor integrates with our preferred Software best.
Neo Vortex
A good alternative to the Kraken X60. Useful for it’s smaller profile for when you really need the extra space. The output shaft is also interchangeable, so some applications where we need some non-spline output shaft (Spline Shaft) this is also a great motor to use.
Neo 550
Used for low load (eg.Intake,Indexer,Turret, etc.), extreme tight packaging scenarios. If space is super tight, or we need it to be very light, this is our preferred motor.
Falcon 500
We no longer use Falcons on our competition robots due to QC issues, as well as Innovation First ethical violations as a supplier. The features of this motor also have been outpaced by newer motors released. We still use the motors on our practice chassis. We used these motors up until 2023 Robot Misha and Zoey.
NEO Brushless V1.1
We don’t use this motor either, due to better options existing.