PTO on robots

[sanddrag]

Has anyone used PTO (power take-off) on a FRC robot other than 60/254 in 2004? If so, pics? Thanks.

EDIT: In case you don't know what I mean, it is using the drivetrain motors/gearbox/etc to power other mechanisms. Has anyone done this?

[Not2B]

Good question.

I know we talked about it in 2004 - use a power take off from the drive wheels to power a winch - but we got behind on everything else - by talking about things like power takeoffs - which ment we had less time to do stuff like a power takeoff - which ment we .... nevermind...

If you did it, how did you "turn" the power on and off? What kind of clutch, basically? Home made? Purchased? Complex? Simple?

[NoodleKnight]

254/60 did it through mesh shifting -- they had an additional piece which would bolt onto their transmissions and through pneumatics, they can shift a gear in/out of power.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Has anyone used PTO (power take-off) on a FRC robot other than 60/254 in 2004? If so, pics? Thanks.

EDIT: In case you don't know what I mean, it is using the drivetrain motors/gearbox/etc to power other mechanisms. Has anyone done this?

Team 824's 2004 robot used such a mechanism to power its winch. It was, in essence, a lovejoy coupling that was engaged and disengaged from the driveshaft to alternately power the drivetrain or winch.

The team suggested its implementation early on as a way of minimizing weight in two torque-heavy applications, but the leader decided it was too complex. Late in the build period, when it became evident that weight was indeed an issue for the team, he ordered the make-shift clutch to be built and, as a result, it turned out pretty shoddy. Given more time, I could have done a much better job.

[Veselin Kolev]

On the line of using one mechanism for multiple things, here are a few:

In 2004 Wildstang 111 used their pneumatic lifting drive train to not only get up the six inch steps, but to hang as well. Lots of teams used stuff like this, like 258 and others.

Also, one proposed design during my year with MVRT 115 was to use the motor that drove the hinge on our 2X ball grabbing arm, and through a shift mechanism to engage a winch, to lift the robot onto the hanging bar. I machined it but it was never used.

It seems that most of these PTO situations were during 2004, using a system to hang. Anybody got any other examples of using a mechanism (not necessarily drive train) to do multiple things?

[NoodleKnight]

This robot (2004) I remember, used a PTO to power their winch -- it was the thunderchickens.
Hard to notice, but that shaft that connects the two gearboxes is basically the winch, the pneumatics controlled the dogs which engaged/disengaged the winch.