pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Soooo many people using that tread material for their whatever. Not being on a team, I have yet to see this stuff up close. Can you give me a rundown on why this stuff is good?

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

is that 8 double selenoids i'm counting? :ahh:

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Question: What has 6 wheels and goes really fast??

Answer:What is another regional winner - and maybe more????????


Nice looking bot this year guys. I was finally able to watch the Science Channel Documentary on FIRST featuring your team and I was impressed with your team's showing in CA!!

Maybe this year is your year???

LOL, but that's what we all want though, right?? To win the Championships??

See you down in Atlanta hopefully!!

BTW, what's your weight in this picture??? It seems like it's awful close to 130lbs... lol
I see lots o' goodies!!

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Whew, ok, lots of questions to answer:

Jessica - We've been using the waffle tread material since 2002, and it's worked out great. The stuff's pretty easy to find (it's actually conveyor belt material you can order from McMaster), and it provides good traction on almost any surface.

pras - There are only 2 double solenoids. The other 6 are singles.

Elgin - Haha, thanks for the props. We weighed the complete robot last night, and it was exactly 129 pounds...it doesn't leave too much weight for powdercoating, which we think will add about 2 pounds. Looks like we might have to resort to desperate measures like cutting off a couple cm off each bolt or cheese-holing everything :D

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

If you're using 8 solenoids, I'm guessing you're gonna be going for multi-positioning with the pneumatics this year?

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

yea lets hear a little more about the beafy pnumatics this year you guys are using along with 60? Also i am curious about your drive train!

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Our drive train is powered by 2 Atwoods and 2 drill motors, with 2 speeds, pneumatically shifted. The gearbox is a modification of 60's design from 2001. The 6-wheeled base is modeled after Team 25's awesomely fast and agile machine from 2003, with the center wheel on each side lower than the others by 1/8 inch, so that the robot rocks back and forth. This shrinks our wheelbase to about 13", allowing us to turn quickly.

The numerous solenoids on our bot are actually used for many different functions. One is for the cylinders that shift our gears, two are for our ball corralling "flaps", one extends our bar-grabbing hook, one actuates our gripping hook for latching onto the mobile goals, one extend the "whips" that knock off the 10-pt balls, one double solenoid actuates the claw for manipulating the large balls, and the other double solenoid engages and disengages the winch for pulling ourselves onto the bar.

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

It must have been a fairly major modification as the drills were different then and we didn't even have Chias.

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Looks great. Everything looks super organized, even down to the different color pneumatic tubes. Good luck this year.

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

How do you fasten the tread material to the aluminum so it doen't peel off?

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

I got to see 60's robot REALLY up close (like I stuck my head in it) at Phoenix and it is amazing how everything is packed in there. They even have this little leadscrew mechanism on their PTO winch that winds the cable evenly so it doesn't wind on top of itself. Anyway, on 60's it appeared that the 4 corner wheel's are toe'd in a bit. I was wondering what is the effect of/ reasoning for this and how does it affect the chain/sprocket alignment? Thanks.

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Yea thats why they have the 6 wheel caster driver just like 25 last year. They have an offset for the center wheels a little lower then the front and back wheels. so the front and back are pretty much like a powered caster. It tips over on to either front or back generally depending on the direction its driving in. This allows them to have a great turning radius.

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

Yes, I know all about the 6 wheel drive and the center one being a little lower. It is just like a Home Depot shopping cart. What I was asking though is if the 4 outer wheels have toe in. On Kingman's bot, it did appear to have about 2 degrees of toe in per wheel (or "toe out" depending on your perspective of front and rear of the vehicle)

Re: pic: 254 Drivetrain
 

The treads are held into the wheels with screws.