VexPro VersaBlock center-wheel drop

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by ksafin

Fantastic. One more question - what's the proper means of attaching the CAMs?

On this Page:

http://www.vexrobotics.com/catalog/p...lery/id/26220/

http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/we...gblocks-g.html

The picture above should show it, all you do is mount the cam dead center. Put a #10 hole through both sides of the tube. Thread a #10-32 bolt into the cam, don't fully tighten.

Make sure the bearing block/VersaBlock can slide by hand, then just rotate the CAM. The CAM will push the block away from it and tighten the piece of chain/belt. Then just tighten the VersaBlock/Bearing Block & CAM. That's about it.

[team222badbrad]

If you feel the drop is too much try only flipping the front or rear ends instead of both.

[AndreaV]

The 1/8 drop is a bit much for today's robots, back when all the bots were 38" long it was ideal. With any robot less than 30" 1/8 is a bit much, with a squarish drive train it is overkill.

As mentioned flipping either the front or back block would result in a 1/16 drop. You just need to decide which one. If most of your weight is towards the half with the two flipped blocks then you can expect the frame to sit parallel to the floor most of the time.

The machinist in me came up with a different solution:
When I was considering the Versa chassis my first thought was to fabricate a custom center block, or at least modify the existing block. You can do this by milling the slot so that it is larger in the opposite direction you want the wheel to go(if you wan to raise the center, mill the bottom slot. You can then use sheet metal of the same thickness to shim the excess, as long as the shim is 1" it should be contained by the blocks. The milling has to be rather precise, so be careful when doing this. Consult a machinist if you must, this has to be set up square and in line with the table. The tolerance of the slot against the tube is quite tight.

In a long robot configuration you might find that it is not as exaggerated as it initially appears once it is at full weight and on carpet, so test it out before doing anything drastic. A little extra drop won't effect you that greatly in this year's game.