H Drive questions

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by MrRiedemanJACC

We are seriously considering H-Drive, but believe a suspension would be needed for it to be effective tavelling over the scoring platform, but there is a lot of work that will go into that (spring and shock? spring only? what spring force needed, exactly how much travel, etc, etc - do you have any other questions we should be asking ourselves?)

The ideal suspension for a center-wheel of an H-drive would be one that always pushed it against the floor with the same force, presumably 1/5 of the robot weight, though you might come up with a different number. In order to keep an essentially constant force against the floor, you will want to use a setup in which the spring(s) is/are pre-compressed by the desired force, but in which the springs don't actually increase greatly in force as they make the necessary deflection for you to get over the corner of the platform. Disclosure: I've never done and H-drive before, and our H-drive this year is not going to attempt to climb onto the platform.