pic: Chameleon Drive

[Gray Adams]

Originally Posted by jblay

I love this idea, very versatile. You can argue that the same things can pretty easily be done with the kit chassis.

Is there a reason for not centering the gearbox and motor assemblies? It's a minor thing but it makes your COG much nicer. Also I don't really see the need for the second omniwheel for strafing on the slide drive. I guess it makes you faster at it but not really worth the weight of the wheel, motor, and gearbox especially cause you can use a CIM somewhere else on your robot by not using it there.

I'm not saying the chassis is a bad idea, I actually really like it.

Originally Posted by Nate Bloom

Really? Our team doesn't have much experience with direct drive, so I hadn't assumed much of a difference.

We had a grand total of one keyed shaft on our robot this year. We lost the key half a dozen times. Sure you could put more effort into the design and build such that it isn't an issue, but hex is just simpler, more easily repaired and maintained.

The bearings are a bit more expensive, but you could not convince me to go back to keyed shafts. More pieces, less strength, harder to deal with over all. The only advantage is that you can use round bearings (without using a sleeve), which are extremely common and widely available.

I'd really like to try out a drive system that goes 1/2" hex -> 1/2" round -> 7/16" hex. It would be a bit of a luxury, but not unreasonably so (especially if you have a machining sponsor to save you the cost of the necessary tools if you don't have them).