Drivetrains in Ultimate Ascent

[nerdherdmember]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

We'll see if the build lead for 422 comes out of the woodwork for this discussion
…
I think the idea is that as long as 422 initiates the contact, the other team is probably in for a bad time.

As build lead and drive coach for Team 422, I can confirm that if we initiate the contact, a bad time is assured.

[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?

[Brian Ha]

2 Cim 4 Wheel Drive.

[F22Rapture]

4 CIM, 4WD wide configuration Kitbot, KoP wheels.

[Andrew Zeller]

6 x 4" VersaWheels with 3/32" center drop in a long configuration. Laser-cut sheetmetal. 4 CIM VexPro Ball Shifters. Like everyone else we anticipate a lot of pushing matches this year moving back and forth to and from the feeder station.

[z_beeblebrox]

Vex Pro Drive in a Day, 6 x 4" Vex Pro Performance Wheels, Roughtop Tread, 4 CIMs in VexPro Ball Shifters, 14/6(ish) ft/s.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Nemo

We're running VersaWheels with Vex single speed / single stage gearboxes. Gearbox is chained to the wheels (32:16). That gives us a theoretical speed of 8.7 ft/s, which is the slowest we've geared since I started.

We decided that we had enough on our plates without doing anything fancy on the drive. With the chain reduction, we were able to to keep gearing it slower until we could spin the tires.

VersaWheels + single stage is just about as simple, cheap, and as light as it gets. We like it.

We're using 8 VersaWheels + 1:5.33 single stage + 15/26 chain reduction. All of this on the VEXPro Chassis. So far it has been one of the best drive trains I have worked with in FRC. It's cheap and works well.

[Grim Tuesday]

4 CIMs in 3 stage VEX Pro ball shifters. We might switch to 3 CIMS in 1 stage gearboxes after our first event, based on how well these work.

The more interesting thing is a completely custom tread drive system. See video for some footage of it driving. The tread is a Brecoflex conveyor with the drive cog run by chain from the gearboxes. Two 3/16 side plates hold each drive module together; the idlers are made from round delron stock and the last one can move to tension the tread.

Why treads this year? It is part of our team credo never to lose a pushing match, even with Trucktown (we were on an alliance with them last year, we never got a chance to test their mettle unfortunately). Speed is reasonably good and they are quite stable.

[lorem3k]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Any particular reason for using Mini-CIMs over CIMs?

We're using one CIM for our shooter and two for our climber, so we couldn't put four of them in drive. We didn't find any significant decrease in drive performance between the full sized CIMs and the Minis, so we stuck with it.

[Koko Ed]

We went with Andymark Mechanums. Our driver is quite adept with tem and has been practicing nonstop from week three til now with the practice bot to get even better before FLR.