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Unread 14-04-2008, 08:34
Foster Foster is offline
Engineering Program Management
VRC #8081 (STEMRobotics)
Team Role: Mentor
 
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Location: Delaware
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Re: New FTC Platform

Quote:
wilsonmw04:
This may have to do with the lack of power that the VEX motors have. In order to lift the two rings for this years game we had to gear down the joints so much we snapped teeth.
Quote:
Fredliu168:
However I do think VEX gears are a bit weak. We snapped 35 of the 12 tooth gears last year lifting 6-8 balls.
This gave both of you a chance to do the "engineering mentoring" that we are challenged to do. For example, when using a 12 tooth gear and a 60 tooth gear, there are 1.5 teeth engaged. This really puts the full force on a single tooth. Which most times means "snappage". But you can do different gear trains that do the reduction in multiple steps. Or double the gear faces so you have more support. Or change the design that stresses are reduced. Or some other solution that great teams are known for.

Engineering is about designing outside the box, while living with constraints that we can't change like gravity, friction and plastic gears. We so much want "well if I had them there Fosteranium indestructible parts" I could make this (arm, claw, lift, base, snorkel) work.

I've found that brute force engineering in FRC leads to the same place, snapped gears, bent arms, burned motors, broken chains, twisted frames, etc.

FTC / Vex makes you think by saying "only these parts". FRC says "use what you want, but weigh less than ..." Both are design constraints.

Let use FTC to teach some good engineering, thinking through the process and improving the design rather than brute force. And frankly, if it was going to be easy, you wouldn't be doing it, there would be no challenge in bolting parts made of Fosteranium together into an indestructible robot.
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