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Unread 01-09-2006, 17:48
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Crazy Ivan Crazy Ivan is offline
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FRC #0190 (Gompei and the H.E.R.D)
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Re: pic: Practice Mecanum Chassis

Quote:
Thanks. Do you have any photos of the arrangement you used? I've currently arranged for the large wheel guards that hold the axles to use vertical slots so that we can adjust their position relative to the frame. This would allow us to raise or lower the wheels individually to ensure contact in case the frame warps or bends, but it wouldn't do this dynamically during a match. How important do you think it is that the wheels sit on an active suspension?
The slots are a good feature, but I would say that an active suspension is almost without a doubt nessisary. Some sort of ridged adjustment only works if the playing surface is compleatly level and smooth (unlike the floor of the Georgia dome that is full of warps). And even if all the wheels apear to be touching, just a small amount of slip with one wheel can cause you drive train to go funky. Even with our active suspension, it took a good hour to align and even then it only strafed strait in only the right hand direction, with a small arc to the left.

Unfortunatly we don't have any pictures of the wheel pods up close, but I'll give my best try to describing them. With both systems I mentioned before, one end of the wheel assembly must be on some sort of hinge or pivot (we did this with a removable steel pin). The other end of the wheel assembly was held by screws going through the ridge part of our frame, and threaded into the wheel assembly with cylinders of gum rubber inbetween the frame and wheel assembly. A similar system was used, only with 3 inch pistons at 45 degree angles.

The other method of suspention you can use (as I belive you alluded to earlyer) is the system team 190 used in 2005, where the wheels were ridged, but it was there frame that actually had one big pivot in the middle.

Hope this helps!
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