theres a small problem here - what happens when you want to change directions with a weedwacker or lawnmower engine - are you going to devise some sort of clutch and gearshift mechanism? i hope not. I'll take my nice drill motors :)

Tom

Well, you would have to have clutches on each engine no matter what so you are not moving all the time. As for switching directions, you would have an engine for each side of the robot right? So, in your transmission, you would have to have an extra gear on each side that is put into the driveline when desired to reverse the direction of rotation. Or you could have steering brakes but you still couldn't go backwards. Hmmm.

When you want to change directions with a weedwacker or lawnmower engine, NOTE, you only have 1 motor, and perhaps the rear axle gets the power (or front),

either way, then you have to find a way to turn the front or back wheels of the bot to steer :)

WHICH PROBABLY CAN BE DONE WITH PNEUMATICS (BUT IT WILL BE SLOW)

I second this motion

Me got a lawnmower. Anyone got Gas

At this point I'd like to call the question. Who is in favor of ending debate and taking a vote?

Oh yeah, pneumatics. That would be perfect for steering, except you can't make a pneumatic piston stop half-way. Perhaps hydraulics? I would go rack and pinion but the idear is to not have any motors.

Chooo choooo...... Chuga Chuga Choo... Chooo.... If I had to pick between a robotic train and a walking machine I pick the cool machine that walks.

Yes, you can.

I didn't discover this trade-secret, though, so I'll leave it to the team that knows to share it - if they're inclined.

But, it can be done.

Yeah, but it required some pneumatics part that was offered in 2001...

It wasn't in the 2002 kit... if it was there, I'm sure people could have figured out how to make it stop half way. Believe me, I did our pneumatics this year, and short of cutting off the air supply (squeezing the tube), there isn't any viable way of cutting the air flow to the cylinders.


The guy from the team who figured this out told me at the beginning of the build that the part isn't available in the kit...

our 2001 bot could stop the piston where ever we wanted, and believe me, the parts were in the 2002 kit

I want to see someone make a hovercraft bot...I doubt our little pumps could hold one up, though (much less allow me to ride on it :D)

we made a hovercraft last year with a really big muffin fan, the one in the kit. it worked for about 2 minutes, and then fell apart

Krass, we need to talk...
 

eMail me here within the neighborhood of soon so as we can discuss our ideas again. Thanks, Michael.

Well, one way would be to use 2 solenoids...

One solenoid would be always on to fill, and would only be used to let air out.

The other solenoid would be in serial after the first one and would be used as a control valve. The release port would be plugged...

OK one more vote for a lawn mower engine, and hydraulics!

But I will bet up to and including 25 cents on Drill motors still being with us.

I'll bet another quarter that I will NEVER again try to build a drive train that doesn't actually move by the 5th week. (third week...maybe)

Eric Stokely

How in the world did you manage to pull that off??? Those fans, no matter what size, don't even have enough power to lift themselves off the ground!!!

Trust me, I tried. I had like 15 of them from this summer's big bargain up in FIRST land!