Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamHeard
I'm a bit confused about it's advantages then. If a lead screw mechanism were designed to be pull only, then it could be very compact and likely substantially cheaper than the $191 seen here. This takes up a relatively wide cross section, and to cover the vulnerable innards would increase that.
You'd have a tough time selling me on the reliability of the cabling (not unspooling ever, etc...) as well.
What type of printing is done on it? I'd have concerns about the strength of the eyelets too depending on motor ratio.
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It is an efficient mechanism (at least when there are no side loads, those linear bearings don't seem to be much) and it can handle 175 lbs, though it'd probably need a decent amount of support.
I do agree with your concerns though. I wonder how long the plastic gears and string will hold up for with the sort of shock loads we see. I'd also be a little scared of using this to drive something like an over the bumper collector.
I don't agree with the site about lead/ball screws(or most of the comparison page for that matter): "However they suffer from sliding frictions causing these devices to be inherently slow and limited in operation." Ball screws are often over 90% efficient and can go faster than the cyclone and have no sliding friction. They do require fancy thrust bearing setups though.
While it's definitely a cool product, I'm not sure what it would provide over a normal winch with slides. Having the carriage move back and forth is neat and lets you get away with less gear reduction, but I don't know if it would play well in FRC.
You can go much faster with a multi start lead screw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ-VOW2GIyY