Thread: Timing Belt Drive System
View Single Post
  #29   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 31-07-2006, 16:37
KenWittlief KenWittlief is offline
.
no team
Team Role: Engineer
  
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 4,213
KenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond reputeKenWittlief has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Timing Belt Drive System
Something has been bothering me about the drawings that were posted by a few people for proposed belt drive systems. I just figured out what it is.

The serpentine belt on the AC and alternator on a car only spins in one direction. The drive belt (or chain) on a motorcycle wheel normally only supplies force in one direction (unless you let off the throttle to slow down)

those systems are ok with spring tensioners to take up the slack. But for a robot drive train that goes both ways, the side of the belt that is under tension would pull the slack out of the tensioner. When you reverse directions it will pull the slack to the other side.

This is not good. That would introduce slop into the system. You want your wheels to turn together, to supply force together. As the spring tensioner is pulled tight on one side, then on the other that will make the wheel on the other side of the tensioner turn unsynchronized to the rest of the drive train.

So Im thinking you dont want a spring tension system - you want something that is adjusted manually, a lead screw sort of thing, that wont flop around when the robot reverses direction.