[Anupam Goli]

I've gotta say, we've been using VexPro and WCP COTS items more and more lately. We've been on the board with them since 2013, but there were some components that specifically stood out to me this season:

WCP SS gearboxThese gearboxes were really easy to work with. Once we installed them, we just had to spray them with lithium grease maybe once a competition, and that was it. They were easy to use, easy to maintain, and easy to switch motors in and out of. We'll likely be using these guys if we go with WCD-style drivetrains again in the future.

Plastic hex hubs. We used these suckers on our omni wheels. These wheels were live driven and had plenty of weight on them. We didn't have a single one break or cause issues. In a game with actual defense, that may not be the case, but for this year's game, they were cheap and perfect.

There were some things that I'd like to improve, though.

I'm not sure whether it was because of the new Colson mold that included the hub or not, but obtaining Colson Live Hubs this year was kind of a pain. Vex and WCP were out of stock for a majority of the season. Luckily, I remembered that TheRobotSpace existed still, we were able to get the hubs we needed, and quickly (Thanks Clinton Bolinger for the great response time and processing time!). This item may have been more of a niche item now, but 5" and 6" colson wheels still need hubs if we want them live driven.

The only complaint about the Colsons with molded hubs I had was that they seemed to be press-fit for hex shaft, where as the WCP Colson live hubs were loose fit. Sometimes it was a pain to get the smaller colson wheels on and off hex shafts.

It would also be nice to figure out a way to use a CIM or mini-CIM in a VP gearbox without having to cut the shaft down, but that's way easier said than done.