Thread: Driving
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Unread 26-03-2015, 23:22
DarkRune DarkRune is offline
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AKA: Dylan Baker-Flynn
FRC #4159 (CardinalBotics)
Team Role: Driver
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 100
DarkRune is a jewel in the roughDarkRune is a jewel in the roughDarkRune is a jewel in the rough
Re: Driving

If you mean control style:
I've always been a fan of tank, where left joystick controls the left wheels and the right joystick controls the right wheels. Apparently this is harder for some people since it takes mental math and arcade drive removes that portion of thinking. However I have seen how tank allows for a little bit more freedom, especially where there is limited programming skills.

If you mean drive train:
West coast. Yes there are some times where moving sideways is nice, but often underutilized by those who implement it. You can break every bit of chain on your drive train, pop the tread off your wheels, burn out a motor (and yes, all three of these have happened to me), but your west coast drive will just keep trucking.

If you mean wheels:
I personally love the AndyMark performance wheels. Yeah, you do have to buy tread and place it on the wheels, but they perform amazingly. The tread barely wears down on them, we replaced them once last year after our first regional but that was just to upgrade the tread to a tread with a higher CoF. We then ran those wheels for another regional, champs, two off season events, and countless demos on pavement, and I am proud to say those wheels are still working quite nicely. I recommend these very highly for West Coast drive. My preferred tread is the Blue Nitrile from McMaster. It's down at the bottom marked Abrasion Resistant Nitrile - Blue.

If you want to move sideways, I like the AndyMark Mecanum Wheels. I've only used the high load 6" wheels, but they have performed favorably, only problem I had with them was that the practice drive train wasn't built level so it didn't go sideways very well. Other than that, if you're using mecanum wheels make sure the weight is distributed evenly and that all the wheels are situated in the correct orientation and in contact with the ground.

I personally have never used omniwheels in FRC, however one of the rookie teams I worked with tried H-Drive, they used the AndyMark DuraOmnis. They seemed to have favorable results with them, wheels didn't wear down very much. I have used the VexPro omniwheels a little, but not enough to talk much about them. I'd personally go with the AndyMark omniwheels if you were so inclined, I've had favorable experiences with other AndyMark wheels.


If none of this answered your question, please clarify and I will be happy to edit and adjust as needed.
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