[RbtGal1351]

Originally Posted by M. Hicken

Since i have been told that arms with 2+ joints to them usually fail, we are looking into making a telescoping arm. All of our attempts in the past have failed miserably. Does anyone have any ideas on how to make a telescoping arm ~10' tall. I am also trying to aviod using a lot of cables and pulleys to extend it.

Also, im thinging of using a cabinet clip. You know, the little metal nipple with the 2 rollers attached by a spring to keep the cabinet door closed, as the mech to hold the tetra, with some base to hold them lateraly still

and Yes i did a search and the other 2 arm threads do not address this

Thanks

we did a teloscoping arm-ladder last year to hang with, and it was very reliable on hanging. (getting up the stairs was a different story, but that's not the point). last year was our rookie year, and we used a cable that did NOT change length to extend it. the geometry was so that all the segments were parallel. its hard to explain, and i dont have schematics on the computer... or anywhere really... (i SAID we were rookies...)

i was in charge of the mechanism last year, so feel free to PM me if you want help. (but you -should- have decided your design by now, but im not one to judge... based on my team...)

because the cable is always the same length, we used a winch drum and 2 (fisher price ones i think) motors to extend the ladder (it even had rungs!) and retract it. (same motors! go cable geometry!)

hope this helps, if i find a schematic of our cable somewhere i'll be sure to post it,
~Stephanie
Team 1351