Re: 2609: What is this?
 

*Shakes head*
I am amazed at the endless ... and somewhat strange.. ways of controlling the bots this year... this is one of the reasons i love FIRST.

Good luck to you all... i want to see that in action

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

AWESOME work guys....very cool to see teams taking such a creative approach

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

We were actually going to do this but ran out of time. http://www.scribd.com/doc/4560708/Tu...on-Systems-8pp
This is alost exactly the design we had. Great idea tho. Can't wait to se how it works out.

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

Make sure to true the wheels the Thursday before competition. I was a bike mechanic this summer, and I was surprised how little a wheel has to be out of true in order to cause a LOT of vibration. I would suggest taking the wheel to an area bike shop, truing only takes 3-5 minutes, and most of them will do it for free. If you really want to do it yourself (which I wouldn't suggest unless you have half an hour to kill or you've done it before), here's a guide.

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

That's a bold approach, hopefully it works out well for you. I'm wondering about why you have a tire on the bike rim though... If you're using it as a flywheel you'd want a lot of inertia and hence a lot of mass where the rim is. Wouldn't it make more sense to bolt or rivet some steel strap to the rim instead of using the tire? Unless maybe you filled it with water or something. ;)

I love seeing bike parts on robots, they seem like such a sensible thing to use! (I don't remember who, but I saw pictures of a team using bike chain for their drive this year... maybe 359?)

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

So looking at the video and looking at the paper on gyroscopic propulsion. It is a really cool idea to move your robot, but just a little confused. I am pretty sure with the way the forces are applied wouldn't you have to mount the wheel at a diagonal making your robot go straight instead of turn all the time.

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

It seems to me that
a: you could power the wheel by placing a simple AndyMark wheel against it and spinning the AndyMark wheel. This would be easier with the bike tire on it.

b: you can make up for lack of physical weight (a good thing on a robot limited in weight) with more speed.

Yes? No?

Re: 2609: What is this?
 

Awesome!