[Adam Freeman]

This year we used numerous VEX Pro products on our robot.

3CIM Ball Shifter: We ran them for 4 events with 3 CIMs and at Champs with 2CIM + 1 miniCIM. We were able to swap in miniCIMs on Wednesday of Champs with no issues. We actually shifted the ball shifters this season with pancake cylinders (I believe supplied from 2013 2CIM Ball Shifters). No issues with reliability or durability. We did have to request the tighter press encoder gears, b/c the original equipment encoder gears were slipping on all (4) of our gearboxes (practice and competition). In my opinion the lightweight, gearing options, and ease of maintenence will make these our gearbox of choice heading into 2015.

Versaplanetary Gearboxs: We ran (5) VP planetary gearboxes. (2) @ 100:1 on the shooter angle adjustment w/RS775, (2) @ 5:1 on the shooter pull back carriage w/RS775, and (1) on the intake at 10:1 w/BAG motor. These are my favorite utility gearboxes offered on the market. Outside some hole alignment issues we already coomunicated to VEX Pro, the only issues we had were the pins on the 10:1 gearboxes walking out of their holes. We had to pull the gearboxes once/event and put in new 10:1 plates with the pins locktited and re-pressed into the holes. These were always the highest loaded stage in the gearbox (last stage before the motor?). I assume we are overloading the 10:1 plates at that stage through the amount of usage we put on that shooter arm.

Various belts and pulleys: Drivetrain was 100% VP 24T and 42T pulleys. Originally started with 9mm belts all around. Prior to competition season we switched to McMaster Kevlar re-enforced 15mm belts on the center wheels. All belt lengths were calculated using the WCP belt calculator. During practice we were getting some belt rachetting and snapped one 9mm belt after a wheel change. We couldn't determine exactly why the belt snapped, but felt more comfortable switching to the wider re-enforced belts. Overall we were extremely happy with the drivetrain performance over our traditional chain drive, and will probably be running a similar setup next year.

Intake was also run with VP belts and pulleys (18, 24, & 30T pulleys). Our intake took a major beating and never once did we have any issues with driving the intake or alignment of the belts or pulleys. Needless to say, I am a fan of more belt and pulley options.

VersaWheels and Hubs: We started with 4" Versa DTs all around on an 8WD chassis. We were not getting the turning performance we wanted during practice and testing, so we switched to the W pattern wheels on the inner 4 to reduce the lateral friction, while keeping good fore-aft traction. We got about a 1.5 competitions/wheel set on the Ws. They were worn down pretty far, but we are happy with the performance to wear characteristics of these wheels. The DTs seemed to appear worn quite a bit faster but still held decent subjective performance. Overall the VersaHub system made setup and wheel swapping very easy for us.

We might be channelling our inner Killer Bee and trying some 4" omnis on our drive this summer. I'm sure they will be just as easy to swap in.

Overall we are very happy with the quality of products, ease of ordering, purchasing, service, etc. available from VEXPro this season.

I'd personally love to see a servo, motor, or electric actuator setup for the ball shifters for years we aren't using pneumatics, but I'm not sure we haven't switched to the dark side from now on. Obviously not an easy thing to do, or they would have already done it.

Keep up the great work!

-Adam