New AndyMark Wheels
 

Has anyone seen these wheels before

https://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2647.htm

I think they might be geared toward FTC but maybe they could also be used for FRC.

Any thoughts?

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Haven't seen or heard of them--but I do know that a number of FRC teams use 4" wheels as their go-to size. Most folks go with 6" wheels, or 8" wheels, but there are a few that go 4". I want to say most of the ones that do are using a modified WCD.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

They come in 1/2" hex, and 8mm key bore, so my hunch is they're intended for FRC.

They look like they could be used as a drive wheel, with a respectable amount of grip if their number is correct. Colson(ish) looks.

I ordered two to try out, you'll never convince me to not run nitrile roughtop for high traction setups.

They are VERY light for their size for such a durable looking wheel, so I'm interested in them for rollers, etc...

I'll post when we get ours.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

4 inch wheels like this would be a little large for FTC if you ask me (though no doubt someone has/will try).

I could see the benefit for robots that use more than 6 wheels in a drive system (or just like them small) or perhaps for different grabber or shooter mechanisms. For the price I've considered getting our team some just to play around with and compare them to other wheels.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

We've been looking into using 4" wheels so we can get our CoG lower. Not sure about using WCD though. I'm not sure if these are the 4" hi-grips

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

if these were 3" wheels, we'd try them on our Octocanum. 1/2" hex with no need for a special hub? Yeah, I'd look at them over Colsons any day.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Well, 4" wheels are the limit for COTS wheels in FTC, so they may very well be aimed towards that market. Plus it gives a CoF for FTC foam tiles.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Does it seem as though they could be used in a drivetrain?

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Are the tread on these wheels similar to bane bot wheels or that of Colsons? In other words do these look usable for a drivebase, before I buy a pair to test them?

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

The tread is the same as the hi-grip Tread material.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

It says it is TPU, but it doesn't give a durometer rating.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Durometer is 77A on both. http://www.andymark.com/Rubber-Treaded-Wheels-s/220.htm

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

3'' or 2'' versions of these would be greatly appreciated, yeah. Price-wise, these look like they'd blow Colsons out of the water.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

*face palm*

Didn't even notice that

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

They do have the coefficient of friction listed for carpet as well as the FTC soft tiles so I assume they were marketing this to both FRC and FTC.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

The pictures were just updated for the Stealth wheels. There are now pictures of that display the integrated hub for both wheels.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

I seem to remember reading that the KoP chassis will have a direct-driven center wheel this year - does this sound familiar to anyone else? If that is correct, then these could be the wheels for the 2014 KoP

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Yeah and it's going to be sheet metal. This must mean that the field won't have bump-like obstacles???

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

I'm having trouble imagining why you'd want to bolt a gear or sprocket to these wheels. What am I missing?

The only circumstance that'd make driving an attached sprocket useful is if you're driving a completely different type of wheel elsewhere. How often does that happen?

Maybe there's a dead-axle hub on its way?

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

My AM Stealth wheels arrived today. They are sexy. :D

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...em-Option-2014

So the Toughbox Mini with 4 inch wheels?

We're getting the PDV. Anyone know when we'll get it??

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Seem pretty durable?

Did you get hex or 8mm??

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Direct Drive center wheel that is powering dead axle outer wheels.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

The only problem with that theory is that they only offer them in 1/2" hex and 8mm. Could either of these work for dead axle????

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

AndyMark already sells a nice 4" wheel for dead axle.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Sure -- but at this point, your outer wheels will be of a different sort.

Not a big deal, really, but it's not all that typical of a setup, either.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

...Just chain it to hi-grip wheels on the outsides.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

I was referring to dead axle with just the new stealth wheels??

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Teams have mixed wheels before. It's not uncommon.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

I understand this lol. I was talking about the Kitbot

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

My assumption is that the desire to switch the kop frame to direct drive was to make it harder for teams to not finish matches driving from chain failure. Making the outer axles live axle does nothing to benefit this.

So, to do this cleanly Andymark needs a new KOP wheel that's live axle and cheap. No sense in recreating the outer wheels (which are dead axle), so use the HiGrips.

As for the difference in tread, just trying stuff out I'd guess. Maybe the HiGrips will be sold with such tread as well.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Could the hex version have a recess machined into the flat side to insert a bearing? If you use this in combination with the 2013 KOP belt pulleys - they already have a bearing recess.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Or, you know, the KitBot could be all live axle. Probably not... but you never know.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Anyone else having issues importing the STEP to Solidworks?

The model is still usable but it has a couple errors, and I'm a perfectionist so it bothers me endlessly. Attempting to heal them didn't work, might just go back and see if I can manually fix it later.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Out of curiosity, I checked out the model, and it doesn't look like this would be all that easy to do. The flat face's thickness is about .15" (according to the model) and the round portion that holds the hex bore over the wheels width is ~.9" diameter - so using either an R6 or R8 bearing looks to be a bit unfeasible.

With that being said, if you really wanted to use these in a dead axle setup, you should be able to get away with taking one of the wheels with an 8mm ID Bore, and opening the bore up to 1/2" ID (round) and then pressing 1/2" OD, 3/8" ID bushings in. It's worth doing the load calculations for the specific bushing you'd use, but at a glance, it seems like it'd be okay.

Re: New AndyMark Wheels
 

Sorry for being slow to get back here -- kinda busy in the lab today. :o

I got two wheels with hex bore. Rigged up a VexPro hex test shaft on some bearings resting in v-blocks, and an indicator to measure face runout near the outer edge of the black plastic. TIR was about 0.015 inch and I think some of that was caused by sloppy internal clearances in the bearings. These wheels appear to run pretty true.

I have not made a traction test set-up yet. Materials appear very similar to those used in other AM wheels that have been included in FRC kits for last several years, so I anticipate similar CoF. Interesting that the treads are crowned, rather than flat or dished as many other AM KoP wheels have been. This has me thinking they might be useful on the corners of a 6WD or 8WD set-up, with very little mid-wheel drop required.