Should I use wheelchair motors with brakes?

Let's Make Robots Beginners
1

Hello,
I am planning on building a lawn mower for use on steep slopes. I am planning on using a sabertooth controller. If I use wheelchair motors without brakes, will the lawn mower just run down the slope even when no power is applied?

First question is: Do I have to use wheelchair motors with brakes?
Second question: How much will that reduce the total runtime given the same battery capacity?

Thanks.

2

Hi there,

Depending on the strength of the motor, the shaft shouldn’t rotate that much easily.

Have you tried to manually rotate the wheel with your hand?
I’m not sure if the break are required but you may find a similar project and ask the owner: https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/snow-plow-robot

For the second question, I couldn’t ask since this will depend if you use a regenerative Motor Driver and if the specifications of the motor varies with and without break. You would need to calculate your ‘‘slope’’ current consumption according to the weight of the robot.

1 Like