Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Use a VersaHub. You can attach the VersaHub to larger diameter pulleys by buying or printing some sort of insert with an ID the same as the hub and an OD that matches the ID of your roller. We did that this year with our 4" diameter roller and it worked great.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Thanks, that's a great idea.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Smaller 3/8" hex bearings. Ideally ones that could be used in a 1x1 tube. So like 7/8" OD with a flange. We used crummy conveyor bearings from Grainger with our collector, which surprisingly didn't fail during competition.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

AndyMark sells this bumper kit for the AM14U3 http://www.andymark.com/AM14U3-p/am-3152.htm Much of that was included in the version shipped as the KOP chassis, it included the right and left angle brackets, the thumb screws and the t nuts. There was also a separate instruction sheet on how to use those parts to create bumpers. It did not include the corner angles but personally I prefer to glue and screw the two pieces together and have found that method to be more than robust enough.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Thing is, most LED strips are one of two solutions: RGB LEDs, or Addressable WS8211 or similar LEDs. I know teams that I know (I've never used LED Strips on a robot before) use the VRM's 2 Amp 5 Volt rail to power LEDs. I'd recommend one of two models: Adafruit Dotstar or Adafruit NeoPixels. These are both addressable. In reality, you don't need addressable really, but it makes controlling them easier, and sometimes it's just nicer to have control of individual sections. The main difference between the two, is that one (the Dotstar) is able to be controlled directly from the RoboRIO, albeit at a higher price. The NeoPixels are much more common, but require a special timing protocol, which must be driven by an Arduino or some other single process device. You may be able to find places that have basically identical strips to these Adafruit brands, just search for WS8211,WS8212,WS8212B, or WK6812 LED strips on Ebay or other shopping website. DotStar strips use a less common APA102 driver on the chips, so you'll find less of these types of strips on places like Ebay.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

I get it - there are options. Yet they're wide, varied, sometimes incompatible and sometimes take the power ports we'd rather put to other uses.

Or perhaps CTRE could come out with a couple more 5V ports on the VRM?

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Try this: http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2899.htm.

It's more expensive than your standard pot, but much less nosiy, much smaller, and comes with a pre-terminated cable.

On the topic of rollers, I've found the secret is the 1.25 x 0.0625 tube. The ~1.125 ID makes a number of COTS hubs and bearings fit nicely.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Try this link. For whatever reason, (Not a web developer so can't tell you why, AM's links require the .htm at the end.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

I was drawing up plans for a linear actuator that uses either the BAG motor or 775pro. It could be built just like the DART actuators and be much smaller. I just don't have access to any machines that can help make it.

It'd be a great off-season project for a team and I think they'd sell like hot(cheese)cakes

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

But if VEX makes it, then it could be designed to work with the ThunderHex shaft without having to drill it out.

Also, it seems that you still would need to crimp or sauter the other end of that connection wire. I'm hoping to just have a potentiometer that has a cable with a pwm end with the other end connected internally. It's a LOT easier to wire.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

This is Definitly a valid product. The cable thing doesn't bother me much but it would be really nice to have a potentiometer that wrapped around a hex shaft.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

Not what I want. It's not simple enough (And yes, I know how simple it is). Andy knows what I want. He had a 3D printed version of it at champs 2 years ago. Someone at AM should tell him to make it already.

Ain't gonna happen anytime soon for a lot of reasons. Unless of course all you want is the PIXY CAM with a CAN interface... you can make that happen without a whole lot of effort... use the HERO board to do it maybe?

All that being said, 900 is actively talking about how to "cheesecake" vision onto other robots in the future... no idea what that means at the moment but we're talking about it.

The biggest issue with vision isn't the vision or the detection. It's getting more teams to add encoders to their drivetrains and mechanisms. You need feedback to make use of the vision data.

I'd love to see more COTS options for encoder integration.

I would also love to see the CIM-Encoder that AM introduced this season improved. It's hollow and the little center spacer plate isn't square. Make it filled in, more robust, and square the center plate.

And I REALLY hope brushless is coming based on what CTRE was showing off. I'd love to see it happen.

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

217-2733 from Vex?

But in hex.. I like it

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

A lot of the industrial sensors do not pull low enough to reliably switch the Roborio 3.3 Volt digital input. A packaged opto-isolator that sinks the input to the roborio level would be nice. Maybe even with a transistor that inverts the logic back.

A Spike replacement

Re: What COTS parts would you like to see?
 

I'm sure I'm missing something and some of this has been alluded to, but how about a small, lightweight, easily mounted replacement for a window motor? Something with low rpm and modest torque. The window motors are flimsy and hard to mount. I love the versaplanetaries but would prefer not to have to use a 3 stage reduction to get to the sub-100 rpm realm.
Clue me in on what you use in these applications.