Drivetrains in Ultimate Ascent

[apples000]

Our mecanum wheels have encoders for speed PID control, and a gyro to correct for any rotational drift. Also, we have "suspension" modules on our wheels so that they have equal force pushing down. What we've seen is that if somebody is pushing us, we have enough power to slide away, and there's enough room for our experienced driver to drive around them. We've gotten pretty good at avoiding defense.

[JohnSchneider]

Originally Posted by apples000

Our mecanum wheels have encoders for speed PID control, and a gyro to correct for any rotational drift. Also, we have "suspension" modules on our wheels so that they have equal force pushing down. What we've seen is that if somebody is pushing us, we have enough power to slide away, and there's enough room for our experienced driver to drive around them. We've gotten pretty good at avoiding defense.

You have enough power to push out of pins?

[apples000]

We don't have enough power to push out of pins, but from what we've seen, for our level of competitiveness, we don't really need to. We've built shifting swerve modules (and spent way too much time designing the shifting part), and found that when we were playing, our drivers never really had to worry about being pinned down, because they could drive quickly away from pushing teams. Our goal is to be a fast robot. Our strategy is to drive over to the other side of the field, get in the loading station, fire feeder station shots until we get defended, the zip over the the pyramid and climb for 30 pts/dump. In order to get a great climber that we felt was "safe" enough, we made some parts out of steel. To line up with the pyramid, we need to have onmidirectional drive, so mecanum wheels were our choice.

[bardd]

Originally Posted by animenerdjohn

You have enough power to push out of pins?

They have about G31 power to push out of pins.

[theawesome1730]

We are using an 8 wheel drop with VEXpro Versa Wheels. We have custom built dual output AM SuperShifters Picture here We have a low gear speed of about 5 FPS and a high gear of around 12. 6 wheel drop has always served us well, but after trying out 8 we like it better. We used mechanums once and liked them for the game (2007), but not for anything else. In other games where mechanums would have been good we opted for crab and swerve.

[bardd]

Originally Posted by theawesome1730

We are using an 8 wheel drop with VEXpro Versa Wheels. We have custom built dual output AM SuperShifters Picture here We have a low gear speed of about 5 FPS and a high gear of around 12. 6 wheel drop has always served us well, but after trying out 8 we like it better. We used mechanums once and liked them for the game (2007), but not for anything else. In other games where mechanums would have been good we opted for crab and swerve.

How did you like VEXpro's wheels? We considered buying some wheels from them (not these), but decided not to because they are a new design and were never used before.
To be honest I really like some of their designs but we didn't have the courage to use them.

[mathking]

1014 is using six (4") wheel drive, with two omni wheels at the front (as determined by where discs are released) and two pairs of traction wheels, one pair in the middle and one in the back back. With tougbox mini at a 12.75:1 ratio. It is not fast but is very maneuverable and has good pushing power. No drop center. The omni wheels allow the robot to turn almost in place.

[JesseK]

We're running 4WD WCD, direct-driven via VexPro single speed gearboxes and a 2nd VexPro gear stage to 4" AM Performance wheels. Can't remember what the final ratio is, but the speed is roughly 11.6ft/s before losses. The wheelbase is 30" wide x 18.5" long. Center of Gravity is biased 4" forward of front/rear center, and is nearly perfectly balanced left/right. It took us 1.5 weeks to fab it, and most of that was waiting to figure out what the frame would look like due to climbing and/or floor pickup. It weighs only 24.5 lbs and cost less than the kitbot because we made everything in-house.

Man does it fly too.

[theawesome1730]

Originally Posted by bardd

How did you like VEXpro's wheels? We considered buying some wheels from them (not these), but decided not to because they are a new design and were never used before.
To be honest I really like some of their designs but we didn't have the courage to use them.

They're actually quite nice and are very, very grippy. Versa hubs are great too because they are very light weight and small. I encourage you to try the ones you considered for next season or later this season.

[bardd]

Originally Posted by theawesome1730

They're actually quite nice and are very, very grippy. Versa hubs are great too because they are very light weight and small. I encourage you to try the ones you considered for next season or later this season.

I will have a second look. Thanks

[Mongai]

This is the second year in a row we are using Brecoflex treads. We are still debating whether to use treaded belts or smooth belts during competition, though.

[ice.berg]

Originally Posted by Mongai

This is the second year in a row we are using Brecoflex treads. We are still debating whether to use treaded belts or smooth belts during competition, though.

What product are you using from them? A belt with a certain type of backing? or something else? I am quite intrigued by this brecoflex brand and its products.

[Mongai]

Originally Posted by ice.berg

What product are you using from them? A belt with a certain type of backing? or something else? I am quite intrigued by this brecoflex brand and its products.

We bought two pairs of belts, one with no backing and one with this backing.

Even with a 1/4 drop, the backing was giving our power supply a hard time.

[lorem3k]

We're using 4 Mini-CIMs on a pair of 31 inch Toughbox Nanotubes (gear drive) with outboard 4 inch performance wheels and roughtop tread. I believe our top speed is around 12fps (it's within a sixteenth).

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by lorem3k

We're using 4 Mini-CIMs on a pair of 31 inch Toughbox Nanotubes (gear drive) with outboard 4 inch performance wheels and roughtop tread. I believe our top speed is around 12fps (it's within a sixteenth).

Any particular reason for using Mini-CIMs over CIMs?