VEXpro Wish List For Next Season

[the.miler]

Does anybody know what happened to the VEXPro Traction Wheel tires? A thin profile wheel with a tire that doesn't wear as fast as tread would be incredibly nice to have. That would be one of the top things on my wish list.

We don't wear tread down on the field quickly enough to warrant concern, but when we're doing demonstrations for our sponsors and at community events on asphalt, our tread gets eaten up fast. Last year, we switched to regular gray Skyway wheels during the offseason in order to avoid having to replace our rapidly wearing tread. I would prefer not to have to do that in the future, and would appreciate the tires.

Sure, there are other options, but they all have certain disadvantages. Colsons are fairly heavy while the Versa wheels and treaded Skyway wheels aren't as thin as they could be due to the additional width for directly mounting a plate sprocket. The thinner profile Traction Wheels with tires that don't wear as quickly would be very very attractive as wheel options.

And we would love to get better bearings, we were fortunate that we got enough good ones to put on our competition robot. The bad ones all went on the practice robot, and it was very amusing to see all the wobble introduced into our practice drivetrain from the eccentric bearings compared to the precision of the comp drivetrain

[Ricky Q.]

Thanks for all the great feedback and ideas.

We've taken note and rest assured that new VEX Mechanical Engineer Aren Hill, Paul, John and other members of the team are hard at work and improvements and new additions to the VEXpro product line that we will announce later this year.

We're in the process of e-mailing out a survey link to make sure we get feedback from as many VEXpro customers as possible, please feel free to fill out and share with others who may not see the link here:

VEXpro Customer Survey

Best,
Ricky

[cad321]

Assuming that next year we will still have the 6 CIMs and 4 mini CIMs, I think it would be nice to have a 3 CIM ball shifter. This would allow teams that want to have a 6 motor drive train to use the shifters as well (without needing to use more than 2 shifter assemblies).

[Ricky Q.]

Originally Posted by the.miler

Does anybody know what happened to the VEXPro Traction Wheel tires? A thin profile wheel with a tire that doesn't wear as fast as tread would be incredibly nice to have. That would be one of the top things on my wish list.

We're working on making sure these will be available for the 2014 FRC Season.

Originally Posted by Ricky Q.

We're working on making sure these will be available for the 2014 FRC Season.

Is there a possibility this will be released before September for some of the later offseason events?

[AlecMataloni]

I'm aware of the potential logistical challenges of getting a license to sell a tooth profile which is owned by another company, but having glass-filled nylon timing belt pulleys (specifically in the GT2 profile) would be totally awesome.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by AlecMataloni

I'm aware of the potential logistical challenges of getting a license to sell a tooth profile which is owned by another company, but having glass-filled nylon timing belt pulleys (specifically in the GT2 profile) would be totally awesome.

I second this. I love belts, and having built-in integration with existing VexPro products would be an excellent improvement to the already excellent line-up. Plus they would look so pretty in black

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by sentientfungus

I second this. I love belts, and having built-in integration with existing VexPro products would be an excellent improvement to the already excellent line-up. Plus they would look so pretty in black

Thirded.

Our team is not in a position to make our own pulleys. AM's pulley integration was awfully attractive this year, and bringing a similar functionality to VEX would simply sweeten the lineup.

- Sunny G.

[Nick1912]

As said earlier in the thread, I would love to see a three CIM ball shifter. That is all of course if the 6 CIM 4 mini CIM rule stays in place. It would make for many great drive trains for next year.

[EagleEngineer]

Originally Posted by Nick1912

As said earlier in the thread, I would love to see a three CIM ball shifter. That is all of course if the 6 CIM 4 mini CIM rule stays in place. It would make for many great drive trains for next year.

Seconded, this would be the number one item on my list.

[IKE]

I would love to see a good powered arm assembly. Something similar to how power-liftgate works for a minivan.

A good shoulder joint. A crank assembly (possibly minivan power gate crank), and attachment points for gas struts to balance the lifting forces.

[T^2]

Something I forgot to mention: the set screws on the VersaPlanetaries are terrible. They strip easily and they don't capture Allen wrenches deeply enough. Please move to longer, higher-quality screws.

[apples000]

HTD belts would be nice.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by apples000

HTD belts would be nice.

If you're asking for specialty belting, go up a notch and ask for GT2.

I'd love GT2 belts integrated into the vex product line.