[Dale]

Yes, Team 1540 did use them for one of our robots in BunnyBots, 2012 a week ago. This is a FRC-style preseason competition we host here in Portland.

The robot in question was 1540 Bogie and was our most sophisticated of the four we fielded. Some observations about the 446 platform.

Pros
Weight. We found these much lighter than the equivalent frame we'd make from scratch. We have the weights on the white board back in the lab but I seem to recall the base with two CIMs being around 40lbs. That's for a two speed shifting transmission, eight wheel drive, chain, wheels, cross members, brackets, the whole nine yards. That's pretty good in my book.

Shifting seemed fine for our one day competition. The base was very fast in high gear yet could push with the best of them in low gear.

Eight wheel drive. That's game dependent whether it helps. It didn't make any difference for BunnyBots. Oddly it did high center in one match on a 3" high goal.

Gear driven main drive wheels. #25 Chains drive the secondary front and back wheels. That means a broken chain won't disable your robot.

Cons:
Because of the drive modules aren't square (they are angled front and back I guess to save weight) they are a pain to work with. Everything you mount to them needs to be cut with that ever-changing height in mind.

Balance. The frame really works best if the robot drives most of it's time on the middle four gear-driven 4" wheels. The front and back 6" wheels are there for when the CG shifts during acceleration, climbing, pushing, etc. That means you need to be really careful when building your robot to keep the weight in the center. Lots of fun was had by our team mounting the battery!

Only available in long configuration. If you need a wide robot for the game at hand look elsewhere.

Bottom line
We'll probably use them this season if the game calls for a long orientation robot. It's not a drive system for beginners due to the balance and angled mounting issues.

Sorry, no pictures right now.