Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe G.
I would try to avoid this if at all possible. Not only do you loose traction and forward force, but mecanum wheels can do some unpredictable things when they don't contact the ground evenly. This is one of the reasons that it's more common to have the traction wheels at the corners rather than the inside of octocanum/butterfly/nonadrives.
Is there a particular reason that your chassis paneling needs to be so tall, extending above the tops of the 6" wheels? Seems you could save quite a bit of weight by chopping the top few inches off of the frame...
Many similar designs are able to get away with a single stage reduction this way, by gearing to the faster wheel first, then incorporating further reduction into the belt run to the traction wheel.
I'd be concerned with the gap in the middle of the frame in conjunction with the thin, unflanged parallel plate construction. Your frame is four thin parallel plates in the middle, which can bend with each other easily. Either fill in this gap by making the front and rear chassis members one piece, or thicken or put some flanges on the chassis side rails to stiffen them up.
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Yes after all of the comments I have seen above (including yours) I will almost certainly be converting the design for a 4in mecanum. More pros than cons (cant see any cons at the moment). Also by only using a single reduction I can probably save a good amount of weight aswell apposed to using the toughbox mini's.
The inner plates actually have two flanges on the bottom allowing the front middle support to be fastened aswell as the sides of the back support. We ran with this almost identical setup this year with a west coast drive and it was extremely durable. Now that I am switching over to the 4in wheels I may lower the top of the plates by an inch or two. The main concern was having the top of the mecanum showing out the top. By having it below it allows for an easier time trying to mount other subsystems to it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnFogarty
Are those 6" wheels?
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Yes those are 6in mecanums on it.