Gearboxes? Help!

[Pauline Tasci]

cimple boxes? I actually have built a few for testing code in the beginning of season? how many of them did u use on the drive system? one on each side?

[bardd]

Originally Posted by pauline589

cimple boxes? I actually have built a few for testing code in the beginning of season? how many of them did u use on the drive system? one on each side?

Yes, and the same last year. In 2011 each powered three wheels, in 2012 four.
In fact, we were using the ones from 2011 since we got them until about a month ago (we're on a break), and they still work great. we used them on average about once a week for a few hours.
Again, highly recommended

Originally Posted by bardd

Yes, and the same last year. In 2011 each powered three wheels, in 2012 four.
In fact, we were using the ones from 2011 since we got them until about a month ago (we're on a break), and they still work great. we used them on average about once a week for a few hours.
Again, highly recommended

I second this. I've looked through multiple gearboxes for use on our robots, and through all of them, the CIMple Box is by far one of the best. Very reliable, easy to mount, and saves teams a lot of money/time when designing a robot (no need to order different gearboxes, these come in the kit of parts!). 1 per side, and your drivetrain will be trucking all year long.

There's a reason that 1114 used CIMple Boxes in their Kitbot on Steroids. They're amazing.

[Pauline Tasci]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

I second this. I've looked through multiple gearboxes for use on our robots, and through all of them, the CIMple Box is by far one of the best. Very reliable, easy to mount, and saves teams a lot of money/time when designing a robot (no need to order different gearboxes, these come in the kit of parts!). 1 per side, and your drivetrain will be trucking all year long.

There's a reason that 1114 used CIMple Boxes in their Kitbot on Steroids. They're amazing.

One per side? Hmm.. I guess I can try it during off season. What is different about it that makes it so reliable?

Originally Posted by pauline589

One per side? Hmm.. I guess I can try it during off season. What is different about it that makes it so reliable?

Like the name suggests, it's very simple (3 gears, 2 of which are on the CIM motors), only 1 stage, so it's more efficient, and because of its simplicity, there are little to no possible failure points.

Just BE SURE TO GREASE THEM. (Caps and bold for emphasis)

[Pauline Tasci]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Like the name suggests, it's very simple (3 gears, 2 of which are on the CIM motors), only 1 stage, so it's more efficient, and because of its simplicity, there are little to no possible failure points.

Just BE SURE TO GREASE THEM. (Caps and bold for emphasis)

hmmm okay! I'll for sure try it!

[bardd]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Like the name suggests, it's very simple (3 gears, 2 of which are on the CIM motors), only 1 stage, so it's more efficient, and because of its simplicity, there are little to no possible failure points.

Just BE SURE TO GREASE THEM. (Caps and bold for emphasis)

^That,
and I also think it has something to do with the fact CIMple-boxes are made mostly of plastic (which is ofcourse softer than aluminium), so gears lose less energy and are damaged less if (and they do) they scrape against the casing.

edit: This is wrong (except for agreeing with SuperNerd256).
For explenation (or excuse): http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=30

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by bardd

^That,
and I also think it has something to do with the fact CIMple-boxes are made mostly of plastic (which is ofcourse softer than aluminium), so gears lose less energy and are damaged less if (and they do) they scrape against the casing.

We used the toughbox mini; which is essentially the toughbox's internals and a plastic casing.

[John]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

We used the toughbox mini; which is essentially the toughbox's internals and a plastic casing.

The gearbox in the pictures (look at #15) is a toughbox mini

This is an original toughbox

I don't know much about the mini, but I do know the only toughbox we have on a competition robot has ran in about 50 matches, and in every demo we have had for the last 3 1/2 years, without any problems.

Also, looking at image #11, from the wear pattern on the gear it appears that only part of the gear (the bottom half) meshed with the other gear (the top has no wear). This may be how the gearbox is designed (I don't know, I haven't looked at one closely enough, but it may be an indication that the gears are not quite the right location. Maybe missing a spacer/spacer in wrong place). I would expect this to make it wear faster, maybe someone who knows more about this than me can answer that?

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by John

The gearbox in the pictures (look at #15) is a toughbox mini

This is an original toughbox

I don't know much about the mini, but I do know the only toughbox we have on a competition robot has ran in about 50 matches, and in every demo we have had for the last 3 1/2 years, without any problems.

Also, looking at image #11, from the wear pattern on the gear it appears that only part of the gear (the bottom half) meshed with the other gear (the top has no wear). This may be how the gearbox is designed (I don't know, I haven't looked at one closely enough, but it may be an indication that the gears are not quite the right location. Maybe missing a spacer/spacer in wrong place). I would expect this to make it wear faster, maybe someone who knows more about this than me can answer that?

Regarding that, one of the engineers that helped us take it apart (We had LocTite on the shaft... Which is a different story) mentioned that the hex shaft needed more spacing from the body. That might have been a design issue, but the hex shaft was also worn away; which allowed the gear to shift from its correct position. We will need to do more investigation to confirm that.

edit: You can seen in pictures 13 and 14 that the corners on the hex shaft have been worn away. Not sure if that is significant enough to negatively affect the gear's position. Other issue might have been a bearing that was not properly fastened that might caused the shaft to jiggle.

[MattC9]

The cimple box is great! but...

*WARNING*

The Cimple box is geared at about 4:1 and If you put a 1:1 sprocket ratio on there you will be going SUPER fast i'm talking 24fps. So please use the Double 12t sprocket on the output shaft (this comes with the gear box so you should have one) and use the 26t sprocket on the wheel. This will give you a nice 11fps speed.

This happened to me... but the opposite... I made the robot go to slow.

[John]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

mentioned that the hex shaft needed more spacing from the body.

I think you are missing (or have put in the wrong place) a spacer of some sort. The hex shaft should not wear like that. I don't think it should even be touching a surface that it will move relative to (i.e., anything other than the gear, the race of a bearing, or a spacer that rotates with the shaft).

Unfortunately I can't confirm this as I can't look at the CAD file, and the pdf of the layout does not show the gears or spacers.

Other issue might have been a bearing that was not properly fastened that might caused the shaft to jiggle.

Any tiny misalignment in the shaft will increase the rate that it wears, and if the misalignment is large enough, it might stop the gearbox entirely. All parts should be secure, if something is capable of moving in any direction other than what is intended (anything other than rotation with the shaft), chances are something is wrong.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by bardd

^That,
and I also think it has something to do with the fact CIMple-boxes are made mostly of plastic (which is ofcourse softer than aluminium), so gears lose less energy and are damaged less if (and they do) they scrape against the casing.

I fail to understand how that makes the cimple-box more efficient than a normal aluminum gearbox (al plates). If anything it should be less efficient than a correctly made/assembled gearbox regardless of plates.

Gears should never scrape against the plates. On a cimple box, the gear has a double protrusion, so it should never scrape against the gearbox.

-RC

[John]

Originally Posted by R.C.

If anything it should be less efficient than a correctly made/assembled gearbox regardless of plates.

This should be true. With all the parts that go into the gearbox, usually there are several ways to "make it work" that allow the motor to spin the output shaft, but only one is correct (and will make it keep working).

[Pauline Tasci]

Do any of you build/design your own gearboxes?