[EricH]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Yeah, I am offering to teach this ROOKIE team how to properly use this system. It's only as simple as using CAD to design your chain runs, and CAD is supplied free to all teams (in any flavor you want, too...). I agree that it's safer for you to avoid giving advice that may result in a bit of failure, but at the same time, if you don't start reaching for the sky early, it takes longer to get there.

There's a HUGE reason I always advocate #25: acceleration. A lighter mass to get moving will accelerate faster, so the weight loss from a moving part results in a HUGE acceleration increase.

Actually, Craig, you're almost close enough to mentor them in person. Davis to the Bay Area is only a couple hours or so, as I recall. Unless you're going elsewhere for school, of course.

I know of a team that stopped using #25 because it kept failing. They spent more time fixing the chain on their old robot that they were using for a practice robot than practicing. Sprockets weren't aligned right. That team now only uses #25 for very light-duty applications where they can check the alignment and #35 for heavier duty, like drive. Team "tradition", if you will. They have also been able to make weight with a minimum of speed holes each year. With a newer team, you can get the #25 usage ingrained faster than for some old teams that have been around for a while.

Note, I'm not saying that they don't use #25 because it is weak, I'm saying that they use #35 because they had problems in the past with #25. Meanwhile, you haven't had a problem in 4 years with #25.

I don't quite follow the acceleration; after all you're moving about 150 lbs (battery, bumpers, robot) any way you look at it. You're just moving that weight out of the drive into the rest of the robot. Rotationally, yes, but then you have to translate that into the rest of the robot.

And for the "reaching for the sky early": true. There is also the element of keeping them from discouragement when they reach and fall short the first few times. This is why we have mentors.