Assembled Gearboxes?

[alexrobotics]

We have been talking to a mentor from CA and he thought that pre-assembled gearboxes are illegal, see we are trying to gear down the chiaphua motor and we found a sheet in our kit for gearboxes with many different gear ratios. But we haven't seen this anti-assembled gearbox rule anywhere.
So, is this fact or fiction?

[KenWittlief]

since the rules for this year wont be posted until the kickoff meeting on jan 10th 2004, how can any of us know what will be available in the kit, or what will be allowed or ruled-out this year?!

[Rob Colatutto]

If the rules for off the shelf parts stay the same this year, you will be able to buy a premade gearbox off the shelf to use with any of the motors, provided you do not modify the motors themselves to use them with it. Custom made parts ordered do require you to add material and machining costs into the total robot cost. You will have to read this years rules very carefully on what is considered legal or not, try to avoide assuming the rules will stay the same.

[Mike Martus]

I know of at least three teams that have been working on gearboxes since the championship last year. I have seen their pro-types that include multi-speed shift on the fly - like an automatic transmission gearbox.

If you search the archives you will see many versions of tramsmissions ready for production when the season starts.

The main problem is that if you do not have a machine shop available and you have to pay for work you will be outside the $$ limitations of FIRST ( I am sure they will keep the $$ limit as it was a good step in the growth of FIRST).

There are many off the shelf units that will work, as long as FIRST allows them this year.

We will know when the game is unveiled and the rules read.

[caffel]

Last year there was no rule aqainst over the counter gearboxes and FIRST tries not to favor teams with good machining capacity.
You might want to check out the 'Mulitech' gearboxes. They have some that have the right features. Also NPC Robotics has a nice one that mates to the Chiphua motor, but is a worm gear design and so may have limitations as a drive motor.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by caffel

Also NPC Robotics has a nice one that mates to the Chiphua motor

Do you have a link on that?

[RogerR]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Do you have a link on that?

i was able to find www.nrcrobotics.com
i wasn't able to find which gearbox in particular fit the CIM, but i didn't look to hard.


merry christmas ya'll

[Dale Williams]

Originally Posted by alexrobotics

We have been talking to a mentor from CA and he thought that pre-assembled gearboxes are illegal, see we are trying to gear down the chiaphua motor and we found a sheet in our kit for gearboxes with many different gear ratios. But we haven't seen this anti-assembled gearbox rule anywhere.
So, is this fact or fiction?

Last year I believe it was fiction!

Last year we purchased pre-assembled gear boxes, for our chiaphua, and used them our robot and it was not a problem. I was afraid that during the checking of the robot before each competition they would be flagged and we would have to pull them out of the robot. That didn't happen.

The only thing to be concerned about from what I saw in the rules, last year, was the max cost of a single componet.

This year could be a whole different matter.

Good luck!!

Dale Williams

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Dale Williams

Last year we purchased pre-assembled gear boxes, for our chiaphua,

I would be thrilled if you could give me a link or manufacturer/part# or something on that. Thanks.

[Rickertsen2]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I would be thrilled if you could give me a link or manufacturer/part# or something on that. Thanks.

Alot of companies make these things. get out the McMaster or MSC catalog and look under "speed reducers" I have also seen them in the Boston gear, SDP, and many other catalogs. try looking them up at http://thomasregister.com

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by alexrobotics

So, is this fact or fiction?

According to the 2003 FIRST rules, teams can purchase off-the-shelf (standard) mechanical parts, including gearboxes, and use these mechanisms on their robots. These purchased assemblies had to be under $400 per unit.

There were many teams who used simple purchased gearboxes (speed reductions) on their robots. It's just like buying a bearing assembly or a latch, as it is a mechanical part. It just had to be $400 or under.

We shall see if this rule is in place for 2004, or if it is altered.

Andy B.