[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by jjdebner

As we started machining a turret we have came upon the question of could we make it a continuously rotating turret with 360 degree + of rotation by wire tracks or such. We found it to be completely do-able. The question is; is it doable AND legal?

I don't have the FIRST experience to know for sure, but I agree with others that a conventional "slip ring" might not be in compliance with R58 / R85.

However, we are also trying to build a continuous 360-degree turret this year. (The turret we had last year for our shooter only turned about 100 degrees.) Our approach this year is to use a homemade "slew ring bearing" out of a couple of lazy susan bearings, and then pass the wires up through the center of the bearing. The wires will take a 360-degree twist each time the turrent goes around, but we intend to put a fair bit of slack into the cabling and "count" the rotations (in software) for the turret. We anticipate that few matches will involve more than 2 or 3 complete rotations, so we don't need to be able to handle an infinite amount of rotation. We plan to have software enforce a maximum number of rotations in either direction, as well as to use an indicator on the OI to let the driver know which way to go to "unwind." In between matches, we intend to "unwind" the wires manually.

Can't wait to see your 360-degree turret! (For that matter, we can't wait to see if our own will actually work!)

--ken