[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by JesseK

When we first put our lift together, the motor ran, the sprocket turned, and the chain/wires all went in unison to achieve the marvelous feat putting out 94lbs of force to move the lift up 84 inches in 3 seconds. "Sweet!" we thought, and took it apart to be powder coated.

Now, when we put it all back together with the same wires & everything, we can't keep the sprocket from slipping on the chain unless we hold our fingers down on the chain to keep it on the sprocket.

We've tried several new approaches over the last day and a half but nothing seems to be working except our age-old nylon rope + wench setup. To be honest, I want to keep at this the new way until the very last second (basically that means the programmers need it). I probably have about 3 more hours to work on it before I'm completely overruled due to other teams needing the bot. I know teams have succeeded in the past in using a chain + cable wire setup, or even a pulley + belt setup, to lift an elevator.

Any tips or suggestions?

The best photo of the full bot is at
http://www.battlefieldrobotics.org/t.../the_robot.htm

if you say you can do fine with your finger on the chain, why not add a few zipties to tighten the chain? or possibly some tensioners?