tranny designs
 

I remember the thunderchickens and the technokats saying that they were going to release some designs for their transmissions. Do you guys have any ideas as to when you're going to do this? If you guys are working on detailed prints, then can you post some close up pics of your trannys. I'm especially interested in the thunderchickens cvt.

Yeah
 

I hate putting deadlines on myself, but I will... I'll post our team's tranny design in a white paper by Aug. 1st. This will include detailed prints.

AB

i can't wait to see those!! maybe next year we can actually get ours fully functioning and get them on the robot for competition:)

UMMM ME 2...
 

I would love to see those schematics!! I would also try to put a tranny on our bot like that next year. I was just wondering, how much did they cost to build?

I'm not familiar with either of these teams 'bots. Any chance of this including 'shift on the fly capabilities'?

Yes
 

Weedie,

Our transmission from this year can shift on the fly. Our driver got pretty good at it also... there was one match where he was pushing a goal in low gear (about 3 fps). He then switched to high gear while he was still pushing the goal, without slowing down a bit.

Andy B.

Have you found this to work pretty good, or have you had to replace it? How many years have you used it?

Let's see...

Have you found this to work pretty good, or have you had to replace it?

This design has worked pretty well. All though due to normal wear and tear we have had to replace parts and repair them. I think overall most people on the team would give the transmissions 2 thumbs up, although the engineers on the team always think of ways to tweak them or change something to make them work better or more efficient (i guess that's just the "engineer" in them :D ).

How many years have we used them?

This is actually our first year using this shift on the fly 3 motor transmission design. I think we came up with this idea once we noticed that we had new motors this year, so we wanted to combine them with our "back to back dual motor design" from 2001.

:)

ThunderChickens CVT
 

I apologize for not answering sooner, but I have not been checking the forums lately. (I am still trying to catch up from 3 months of neglect at my real job).

The Thunderchickens CVT design drawings and engineering document (to explain the theory) will be avilable by IRI (July 19th and 20th). I will have CDs for anyone who wants them that will contain:

(1) AutoCAD v14 drawings (converted from SolidWorks 2001Plus)
(2) SolidWorks 2001Plus Drawings, Parts, and Assemblies
(3) Some form of translated solid models (IGES, STEP, ACIS, etc)
(4) Microsoft Word (or Powerpoint) document describing the theory and engineering calculations.
(5) Collection of Pictures of the actual unit.


I will post pictures in the Gallery next week.

To let everyone know, we went through 4 generations of transmissions until we got it right. We basically blew 2 regionals because of our development (Ypsi & Chicago [dead last]). The models I am giving out are our final design that works flawlessly at Nationals. The gearbox could be improved, so if you decide to use this gearbox idea and you make improvements, please post your improvements in similar detail to what we are giving out.


-Paul

Thats awesome! I didn't realize you guys sacrificed so much for this transmission. It's really generous of you guys to just give away the design like that.

We Didn't Mean Too
 

Don,

Believe me, we never thought we would be sacrificing that much. The engineer (huh, me, huh) made a bad assumption that put us back a few weeks. We couldn't make any parts, except at competitions, so it took 2 competitions to get it all done. The original design hinged on my bad assumption, so when we realized the mistake we had to scramble to fix it.

-Paul

Assumption?
 

Would you mind sharing your assumption so others won't make the same mistake? Or was it one of those Metric-to-English errors?

Thanks,
Jason

Just to share, one of my bad assumptions was trying to use 1/2inch wide conveyor belting for treads. Even with epoxy and screws, the rubber just ripped off. Next time, we'll either use much wider tread or pneumatic tires.

TechnoKats tranny also available at IRI
 

Since Paul is getting the Thunderchicken tranny design ready by the IRI, I will get the TechnoKats tranny design ready to publish by that time also.

However, I will only have hard copies (or electronic versions of .pfd files) of the design available to distribute at the IRI. I don't plan on making CAD files available.

Andy B.

Re: TechnoKats tranny also available at IRI
 

will it also be published on your website?

Re: Re: TechnoKats tranny also available at IRI
 

Even though im not andy, i am about 99.9999999% certain the answer to that will be yes