Custom West-Coast Design Feedback

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I'm definitely getting to the point where I'm just splitting hairs here, but I interpreted Andrew's post as "buying a COTS part is the exact same amount of design as making your own", which it isn't since one stops doing component design. That's not to say component design is better or necessary, it's just not the same set of skills being used and practiced.

The parts that I would refer to as the system design (excluding the choice to use VersaChassis itself) would be the choice in gear ratio, gearboxes, and motors (perhaps power transmission as well). Certainly few real world situations involve engineers doing detailed design of every component - lots of off the shelf parts or reused designs are implemented in lieu of all this extra work.

My point is essentially that it's the off season, and the OP is building an off-season drive. The constraints likely are in favor of more time and less money rather than the other way around. This I don't think the notion of doing something custom should be inherently knocked in favor of a COTS chassis. They could just buy and build it in the build season if it makes sense to run then.

Just a thought along the side-- I interpreted the post as "we include everything in the CAD, whether we're building it or buying it"-- not "since we downloaded the model, it's the same as designing it" (which I think anyone would agree is a ridiculous statement). In that regard, I'm certainly in favor of having as complete of a CAD model as you can-- when I've designed drive trains and assemblies for robotics in the past, I've found that it's nearly always worth taking the extra 10-15 minutes to make sure all the bolts and rivets fit where they're supposed to (because you know what they say about assumptions...). Just my requisite money paid to mail a letter to the editor.