Quote:
Originally Posted by wireties
Late in the process we got a 1.7s minibot working with 1/4" tubes covered with surgical tubing. I never understood why everyone thinks magnets are necessary. If you center the minibot's mass left to right and balance the top to bottom mass difference by angling the minibot a bit, magnets are not necessary. Sure the minibot is not trying to climb straight up but it is also not trying to pull the magnets up with it - and its simpler.
|
At the beginning of the build season, someone had suggested magnets and we quickly dismissed the idea, thinking with the potential weights involved, magnets would not be practical, except perhaps to hold a latching mechanism closed. As the build season progressed we experimented with many differnt concepts and prototypes. I favored a balanced approach as you describe. I found that anytime we would get close, one tweak would throw the whole thing off. When someone put together a prototype with a rare earth magnet, it became very simple. No muss no fuss, just get it to the pole and climb. That was the direction we went and it worked very well.