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Unread 19-05-2016, 13:08
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FRC #2502 (Talon Robotics)
Team Role: Leadership
 
Join Date: May 2016
Rookie Year: 2014
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 5
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Re: Best methods of bumper mounting?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PAR_WIG1350 View Post
The obvious response to this is to use the right bumper as the attachment mechanism for the left bumper.
About that.... 2502's bumpers in 2014 were very interesting. Our electronics, drive modules, and just about everything else were super compact in the robot. The original plan was just to put bolts in the bumper, put the other side of those bolts through the frame, and then put nuts on the back to hold the bumpers on. Except that we couldn't reach the bolts to put nuts on the back. So instead, we used the bolts merely as a locators and strapped the bumpers to each other. So we ran webbing through our robot and tensioned it so the bumpers couldn't pull away from each other. Needless to say, the inspectors didn't like us very much.

TO CLARIFY: I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SYSTEM OF ATTACHMENT! It took upwards of 10 minutes to put the bumpers on and the only reason it didn't screw us over, especially in elimination matches, was because we had reversible bumpers. It was just a little bit hilarious so I thought I'd share.

This year, we had pieces of angle with holes drilled in them attached to the bumpers. Our frame was 1x2 tubing. We put pins through the holes in the angle and through the frame. It worked well, but they could have been a little more secure. Definitely paying attention to this thread to find ideas for next year!
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