Quote:
Originally Posted by Vespasian
One thing I forgot to add is that the outer four plates (the big ones) are made of steel. This was a design decision that we wanted to try out. Though I think you are correct in saying that we will want gusseting.
We are also planning on having bumpers that are entirely connected (one piece), and that are reinforced with aluminum. I don't know if anyone else has had good results with bumpers that also serve to reinforce their structure, or if that is just not a good idea.
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Could you explain more about why you are trying out steel? I am all for trying new stuff in the offseason that you wouldn't normally in the build season but this is one of those items I think most of us would say if you are having to try steel you are doing something wrong. Steel isn't the easiest material to work with compared to the ease of aluminum.
I would highly recommend you give this chain spacing calculator a try to properly space your wheels. We used it this past year on 35 chain and after a full season the chains have stretched slightly but they are still in great shape to run. Its been really nice not having to worry about chain stretching out over a season and eliminate some components from the robot.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...8&postcount=10
Also am I looking at the model right that you are using two shaft collars to keep your axles in place? I would recommend using slip rings or tap each end of the axle with a 1/4-20 thread. Shaft collars will come loose very easily and if you don't check them after every match it will come off eventually. Your drivebase is the most important part of the robot that will see the most run time. If you make it as reliable as possible and eliminate as many failure points as you can your pit crew will spend little to no time touching it in a season.
If you keep the gearboxes mounted as they are now you might want to consider running dead axles instead of live axles as you are now. Round bearings are cheaper to buy in comparison to 1/2in hex. Since you aren't directly driving your center wheel there isn't much of a need to go with live axles.
Another thought to consider is how to make each wheel/axle assembly as similar as possible to reduce the number of unique parts and make repairs a lot easier. This past year we made every wheel/axle assembly the same on both of or robots including color coded spacers so all parts were interchangeable between wheels and robots. Of the few times we did have to adjust our drivebase it was an pretty pain free. You can see a picture of one of our drive
modules assembled for reference.