Quote:
Originally Posted by James3245
Is there any advantage of pancake shifter (compared to typical cylinder required of AM shifters) other than more compact form factor?
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The form factor, including the mounting, is the only real difference. If you use a COTS shifter, use the recommended cylinder. If you're building your own, managing space is the deciding factor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James3245
If weight is taken out of consideration, are the wear characteristics of aluminum gears (available by the typical robotics vendors) close enough to steel to be left out of the comparison pros and cons?
I'm not talking about outer-edge use cases, just a typical FRC shifting drivetrain for a game that has some pushing. (no automatic shifting). We've used both aluminum gears (in VEX products) and steel gears (in AM products) in past.
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It depends on how much pushing you're doing, and (more importantly) how hard the collisions are. The case where you're most likely to need steel is on the bull gear (gear nearest the wheel) and the gear that engages it. It would take a truly extreme case to require steel gears in the earlier stages, or even on the bull gear for simple pushing without collisions.