off season mods
 

were the bosch van door motors from last year legal to use this year? We would like to replace the window motor driving our elevator with something a little beefier but want to be sure of its legality in any of the off season events.

Re: off season mods
 

Matt,
In general only motors supplied in the kit each year are legal for that year. There is a section in the manual that list the additional motors that may be used, i.e. 2 small CIM and 1 large CIM. Rule R27> Motors, pumps, and, Robot Controllers from previous robots can not be used in addition to those provided in the 2007 Kit Of Parts. They may be used as direct one-to-one SPARE PARTS for those provided if the provided part fails or is damaged.

Re: off season mods
 

thanks

now, how to mount a 3in cim...:yikes:

Re: off season mods
 

Ask the team that is holding the off season event. Most don't care if you come in a little overweight or with not-so-legal mods as long as it is within reason and in the spirit of fun competiton.

Re: off season mods
 

I'm seriously considering a project much like 1678's Robochair, except...

Wireless.

That's right, with a wireless control board. People would be amazed at the chair driving around with nobody in it.

Too bad the IFI control system thing runs about 1.2k$.

If I got a FIRST KOP though, or old robot parts, that would own, though.

In fact, I might be able to talk to my team and get old robot parts. I could be the awesome dude driving around a college campus in a big, comfy chair. That would be awesome.

Re: off season mods
 

VEXstuff is much less expensive, and you can run Victors from the PWM outputs of the VEX controller.

that's what 1726's "promobot" uses. (I think....so be careful)

Safety FIRST, though

Re: off season mods
 

If you are looking for something beefier than the window motors, I would suggest using the Globe motors. The Keyang window motor has 12 Newton-meters of torque, while the Nippon-Denso is 10.6 N-m. However, the Globe motor at stall puts out 17 N-m at 21.6 Amps, so you won't trip your circuit breaker.

Plus, Globe motors are indestructable. :D

Re: off season mods
 

I might have to look into that.

And yeah, I'd be safe about it. I'd try to keep as much of the original chair frame intact as possible, all while isolating the robot parts for easy removal and repair if needed, plus protection against possible electrical fires (knowing my electrical skills...)

Re: off season mods
 

I want a robot chair like the one a team at the Davis regional had as their mascot. It was soo cool! That would be a great off-season project. Ride down town in the parade in a robo-chair. *drools*

Re: off season mods
 

That "one team" was 1678, yeah.

I'm actually considering talking to my team's sponsors. And as a bonus, I could modify the power system to work in parallel (basically, doubling or tripling the battery life depending on the amount of batteries I use).

That's why the Radio-controlled would be so awesome, is because I could walk behind it as I drove it, or sit in it. But that would take 7.2v batteries for the OI.

Re: off season mods
 

If that were only the case, I would never have to climb up on the satellite dish and replace the feedhorn motors.

Re: off season mods
 

Uhm...... you talkin about our robot?

Dual 3inch cims drive our elevator... floor to top rack in 1.5seconds.

-q

Re: off season mods
 

I was thinking more like team 25 but yes, the same idea. Do you have any pics of how your cims are mounted? In fact, anyteam out there that has used a 3 inch cim to drive their elevator, if you would send me some pics it would be verymuch appreciated.

Did you use the timing belt pully thats already on the cim? Is it direct drive? any useful info would be great.

thanks:)

Re: off season mods
 

ok.. unfortuantely i dont have any pictures of that part of the robot. but i can give you some details.

the cims are mounted facing toward the left and right sides of the robot and have a #25 chain sprocket on them running to another sprocket to achieve a 2:1 ratio. this sprocket is on a keyshaft that has several ball bearings on it since this shaft has a good number of pounds on it (around or a little above 100 i believe). the shaft has another cim/chain/sprocket combo mounted on the other side as a mirror image.

On the shaft there are four timing belt pulleys and one larger timing belt pulley to run to the shaft encoder that the servo routine uses for feedback (the elevator moves too quickly for a human to control). the other pulleys run to the very long lengths of timing belt which run the extension of the elevator, ours is a triple-extension arm, if you need explanation on that part i can give one.

we would have used the belt pulley right there on the cim.... but its next to impossible to find that 3mm pitch or whatever it is timing belt. there's places that have it, but its used in many products apparently so they arent too interested in small quantity customers.

-q

Re: off season mods
 

If you can't get controllers, give me a PM or something and I may be able to swing you one of our old basic controllers and OI's. I'll have to run it by the team, but we have so many that I'm sure they'd be fine with it.