816 - 90% Complete (Video inside)

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Madison

What was the lower link previously? PVC?

Our machine shows a lot of the same characteristics that yours does and it seems like we've taken a lot of the same steps to mitigate the problems. I've been considering replacing the lower link with aluminum or fiberglass, but we see a lot of elastic deformation in that member and I'm worried that the replacement will plasticly deform instead of stiffen things up.

Madison, the original lower link was 1-1/4" Sch 40 PVC. We noticed a lot of elastic deformation under load, and our operator complained about the amount of "bounce" while lifting and moving. We replaced the lower link with a 1-5/8 OD Aluminum tube with a .109 wall and that has fixed all of our issues.

I noticed that the PVC arm had approximately 1/2" of an outward bow in the center after it was removed and showed that it had begun to stress and discolor. There is no doubt in my mind that the link would have broken at some point in our season, I'm just not sure when.

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Dustin, this robot is god awful...It has nowhere near the respectable amounts of orange and blue yet. Get on that.

Orange and Blue will come eventually, I'm more concerned with Mini-Bots at the moment. Lol.