Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

seems like it works quite well...

Tmr i want to get the frame built in wide config, and then compare using 2 toughboxes and having 2 free driving wheels to having a tough box on each of the 4 wheels...

Have you guys tested that?

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

Great to see others getting the same results. Wish you guys the best of luck this year in Chesapeake =)

Hmm, I see your point but not quite. Care to explain further?

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

By the looks of the video, the robot was tested with a tough box on each of the wheels and handles quite well. From my teams experience, have 2 free driving wheels and steering with 2 powered wheels was quite hard and takes a while to turn. This could be because we haven't used software to limit the power output on our motors yet, but it's information nonetheless :D

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

I think the meaning was that with a wide base you wouldn't be able to fit through as narrow of places as you would with a long base. Which is a good point but in this game with the trailer the wide base makes it so that your overall length with the trailer is decreased which I would say is a fair trade off.

Re: Goig "wide" with the chassis
 

DO NOT HAVE NULL WHEELS THIS YEAR.

This has been repeated frequently in many threads. Have all wheels powered otherwise they are useless and add dead weight.

A toughbox on each wheel does work well. Just make sure if you use it on a final robot that your toughboxes have washers keeping the keys in and that they are lightened. Replace the clear backing with Al and add lightening patterns all around. Also the side plates don't need to be there, might want to just add in some delrin standoffs instead. Hope that helps.

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

Glad I started this thread: will help us and other teams
deciding wich way to go. Now, watching 1629 video, from
my calculations, their top speed schould be somewhere
around 10.5 fps. For some reason they going much slower.

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

They're capped.

By our calculations, anywhere from 8-15fps is going to be good for this game. I personally like the 9.5-11.5-13fps range.

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

With the AM box(12.75:1) and 6" wheel direct drive
your top speed is around 10fps. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Re: Goig "wide" with the chassis
 

A trick we used last year was to remove one stage of gear reduction in the Toughbox, changing the ratio to 3.57 or thereabouts. It's pretty easy to do, and not easy to spot in a video of someone else's robot.

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

Many thanks. I plan on using this to talk my team out of a crab drive.:D

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

I doubt that we're going that much slower, although we were playing with the joystick sensitivity througout the day.

Once you try this yourself you'll see that it's not about how fast the wheels can go, but how smoothly you can accelerate and decelerate. Gunning it just makes the wheels spin. It takes a steady hand (and hopefully some good software) to stay controlled. Once the drivers got the hang of steady starts, then the trick was stopping without skidding. There's no letting the stick go, or pulling backwards. The driver needs to allow time and space to slow down under power.

The Trailer actually aided turning by performing a jackknife procedure.

Phil.

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

so assume you use 4 cim motors for each wheel...

say you then wanted to have a belt drive system.. what motors could we use to drive that. My team seems to think that any other motors except the cim motors are too slow...

any ideas?

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

Doubling up on fisher prices should suffice.

Re: Going "wide" with the chassis
 

hmm ok we can look at that

Re: Goig "wide" with the chassis
 

We were thinking of going wide with our chassi, but were concerned that it would be really hard to get out of any tight squeezes, or make any tight turns. However, we are excited to make a mock up of it, and test it. I just wish they had sent a sample of the floor!