Chief Delphi - Help! Direct Drive Issues

Quote:

Originally Posted by SlimBoJones

They never did it in competition, but those drill gearboxes pictured above (2006 Triplets) are multi-speed. I remember having a discussion with a member of NiagaraFIRST about running each side in a different gear, and getting a repeatable amount of curve. I'm pretty sure they were quite successful during testing.

But as most FIRST teams found out when it came time to actually win games: why shoot crooked when you could shoot straight? :D

Actually Shawn, this is only half true. We never shifted the shooter transmissions in competition for a variety of reasons. We did however vary the speeds of the two motors allow us to "bend it like Beckham". Anyone who watched Team 1114 carefully, noticed that the drivers would find a spot on the field, and not usually turn the robot much to aim, despite the lack of a turret. Using our "curveball", we were able to keep hitting the target, even when being pushed. This was a huge asset to us, especially since we did not have a turret. This played a large part in our decision to use horizontal wheels, as opposed to vertical ones.

Now, if we had made the decision to shift those transmissions, we would have been able to put a much large curve on our shots. During testing with gearbox in 1st and the other in 3rd, we were getting as much as 3 feet of curve on a 20 foot shot, with a high degree of precision. The decision not to shift the gearboxes was made largely to avoid over complicating the entire design.