Centering and Driving Flat Belts

[MetalJacket]

Originally Posted by jimwick

Last year we were one of the few teams at the Granite State Regional that could pick up frisbees reliably from the floor. We used a flat belt system.

We found the necessary rollers at the local True Value hardware store! They were in the section of the store that had furniture rollers and glides. They had a convex profile. They were mounted in sort of a foot, but we just drilled that out and used the rollers. They worked just fine with a 1" urethane flat belt.

Could you post a picture of the part, preferably on the robot but doesn't have to be.

[the.miler]

Flat belts worked really well for us on our collector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCBjZ0s0kAo

We used McMaster flat urethane belt with this part number: 6075K14

To make sure the belts tracked well, we wrapped crowns of tape over the 1/2" shaft (which raised the diameter of the "pulley" to the minimum diam. specified for the belt product). We usually wrapped a few layers with the upper layers thinner in width to create a gradually crowned shape. In our experience, the belts have run great as long as the crowns on each shaft are properly aligned to each other.

I will edit with the exact name of the tape product we used if I can find it. It was in the electrical tape section, but it is not smooth on the outside as most electrical tape is. Instead, it was black and fairly sticky on both sides, which made it pretty good for our purposes. We acquired it from OSH, a local hardware store chain, but I cannot find the product on their website.

Hope this helps.