Frame Drive

[Deke]

Fantastic! I like how two different approaches end up in similar designs.

A comment about the hex bearings that is my opinion and I am sure will differ from person to person. Even though they cost a little more, they simplify assembly by removing the need for precision machining of shafts to get a good fit into the bearing. Round shafts would need a light press fit, or loctite, or maybe some sort of knurl to fit tight into the bearing. So the hex removes the need for any of those three things while providing slip fit and proper bearing usage. It's the never ending battle of cost versus benefit.

[Joseph Smith]

Last year my team integrated our gearboxes into our frame to save space in the middle of our robot for disc movement. We had 1.5"x3"x.125" aluminum tubing, and our drivetrain was west coast style. We took the gears and hardware from a Toughbox and built them into the tube, mounting the CIMs and some bearings to a single plate that was bolted onto the inside of the frame. The design worked and saved space, but we had some efficiency loss because the sides of the frame rail were not perfectly square, and it affected our gear spacing slightly. Also, maintenence was difficult on this design because there was no room to pull the CIMs off of the gearbox- however, this was due to other packaging in the robot, not the gearbox design. IMO if you can package this gearbox with the rest of your robot and you account for tolerance in the walls of the aluminum frame, this could work great.