@stiebel thank you for your insights!
Asking teams for their motor specifications arguably employing the honor system which is not necessarily a bad thing. There are two criteria for rules that your suggestion may not meet well however:
-
rules need to be approachable especially for light weight - finding motor specs from some suppliers and even for well known kit bots (e.g. Lego) could be a challenge for teams - the forums could help here but a point was bought up that some teams with hand-me-down motors may not have any spec sheets. That’s also implying that teams understand what stall current is and why we’re making a point to ask for it. One could argue that this isn’t really a big deal but…
-
rules need to be enforceable - this rule would trust that teams aren’t supplying faulty datasheets and have easily identifiable motors w/o disassembly. Testing stall current on a brushed motor isn’t too bad but what about brushless? In the end, how can we verify that motors are indeed in spec if a team is suspected of being in violation? This also isn’t drilling a few holes to make the bot lighter or shaving down an axle to meet the diameter - a team not meeting this spec would have a major advantage over the others and wouldn’t be easy for a team to remedy at competition. Imagine a team not being able to play or at least compete fully if an honest mishap occurred.
I’m about to compile a summary of all of the discussion had here and in our meetings on the potential of limiting/capping the speed within the next week or so. If anyone has any other suggestions/comments, please feel free to add to this thread; we’re taking everything posted in the forums into consideration even if we haven’t directly responded. Thanks.