[Chak]

Is your steering encoder gear aluminium? If you have access to a 3D-Printer you could make it Nylon or ABS (not that it saves much weight).

The absolute encoder gear is aluminum from sdp-si, the incremental encoder gear is steel from andymark. I'd rather not use steel, but the andymark one is convenient.
I suppose we can 3D-print gears if we tried, but as you said, it's not really that much lighter considering they're 1/8'' thick. Besides, the sdp-si gears we're using have something called clamp type hub, and it looks nice and easy for encoders. You can kind of see it on the 5th render.

1. Can you make the side plate modules thicker than 1/8"? I'd be concerned about how rigid those plates would be relative to each other, as any flex is going to lead to the bevel gears misaligning, and dramatically increasing tooth load as a result. It's not fun.

So this is a common problem? Thicker plates it is. 3/16'' maybe. What would you suggest?
If that's a real concern, we could also extend the 3/8'' shaft and put retaining rings on both sides, so the shaft becomes structural and helps the plate out.

I think you could probably incorporate the 2x1 tubing into the gearbox design. It seems a bit weird to me that you have a gearbox full of 2" standoffs mounted right above a 2" tall tube. With some design tweaks, I bet you could use the 2" tube itself as the gearbox standoff, which will cut down on part count and weight (particularly bolt weight).

hmmmm...
I guess this would be a alternative trade-off we would make during competition season: less weight and simplicity versus more machining and less ease of gearbox repair.
Thanks for the idea! We didn't even realize that the spacers are almost exactly 2'' long, since we let them grow with the gearbox.

Please tell me we can print red and blue spacers and switch them for different colored alliances. Please

Only if you're willing to switch them every other match, Dylan.
Besides, most likely the spacers will be black/white delrin/nylon/aluminum standoffs. The spacers are taking more of a load this time around. The spacers are just blue on the CAD to differentiate them from all the other white/black parts.