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Originally Posted by Chris is me
This is a good start. Your design process is fairly sound and it seems like you're focusing on making improvements to an existing design where it makes sense to and keeping the rest. Not bad.
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Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
I think you probably don't need the entire module to come out as one piece to do this. You could save some weight by removing the inner plate and just using the tubing for that purpose. Just put the robot on blocks and remove the outer plate when you want to change wheels. Making the outer plate itself removable is a bit of a challenge but shouldn't be too hard. Hint: Drop some riv-nuts in your tube for the outer plate standoffs to thread into rather than making them coaxial with the inner frame standoffs.
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The reason for making a module that can come off is because this year's KOP frame had a removable outer plate, but we had to put nuts on the ends of the axles to hold them in, and we could only change out the wheels between matches. By making a removable module, you can have a module set aside and prepped so that when the time comes you do a quick change of the module rather than each of the wheels.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
As a general rule, you want to get your strength from your cross section, not your material choice. Rather than upgrade the flat plate from one material to another, make the plate not flat anymore. Can you use aluminum C-channel here? C-channel is much stiffer than flat plate because of the flanges, and thus is less prone to bending. It is also only marginally heavier than a flat plate of aluminum, while a flat plate of steel is much heavier. It's more strength and weight efficient to change your geometry than it is to change your material.
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Right, and I did add the cross-brace on the front ends of each side module to add that extra strength so it can be made of flat aluminum rather than flat steel.