[FTC]: Tetrix Gear Backlash

[ftelliott]

Hi Everyone

I am looking for clever way to reduce the amount of backlash we have in a couple of our subsystems.

Starting with the motor, we have a centrally-mounted Tetrix motor and a small gear mounted on a Tetrix channel with the motor axle centered on one of the large holes. In an adjacent hole, we have an axle with another small Tetrix gear mounted on an axle hub. This axle spins two more small Tetrix gears on each side of the robot, each of which engage a large Tetrix gear attached to our lift. So its: motor with directly mounted small gear --> small gear on long transverse axle ---> two small gears each side --> large gear each side. The backlash comes from the motor's backlash, the one small-to-small gear-to-gear mesh followed by a small-to-large gear-to-gear mesh on each side.

If it was a motor whose axle was not constrained by location, we would just rotate the motor in the mount until the gears were nicely engaged. However, in our current setup, all the gears need to be spaced by the Tetrix hole pattern and they're a bit loose. Any clever way to reduce the backlash without relocating everything or eliminating some of the gears?

Thanks!

[MattRain]

Over the years we have gone away with using any of the tetrix hole patterns partly because of this problem. It doesn't allow you to mesh the gears all the way, resulting in a lot of play. If its not to hard, try replacing that section with square stock or something and drill your own holes.

[TheThings5926]

Our team didn't use any Tetrix this year because of a similar problem among other problems with the system. If you have access to a drill press or some way of drilling aluminum stock I highly recommend replacing it like MattRain said. We drilled the holes big enough to still fit the Tetrix brass bushings.