Re: Motors

In lugnet.robotics, Thomas Chesney wrote:
> Is it a bad idea to run motors at different power levels as in OUT_LOW,
> OUT_HALF, and OUT_FULL. What I mean is, will running a motor at low power wear
> it out significantly faster than running it at full power?

I seriously doubt it's anything to worry about. (If you're curious, the
technique it uses to change power levels is pulse-width-modulation). In some
ways, I'd expect the opposite - running a motor on low greatly reduces the drain
at stall, which means if the mechanism seizes up, and no-one notices for a
while, motors running on low won't be at risk of overheating, while motors on
full power but unable to turn may run that risk. (The motors have some
overheating-prevention features in them, but I figure it's better to not get to
that point :-)

The flip side of course is that a motor running on low is more likely to stall
in the first place, since it has less grunt, so a lesser degree of friction will
stall it.