New Vex Mecanum

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

I later found out his testing included driving around on sidewalks and over significant bumps and door jams, in addition to running around on FRC carpet.

Was the driving robot centric or field centric going down that sidewalk

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by Monochron

FYI Aren Hill IS Vex, he is one of the engineers there. I'm sure he'll provide more data on their testing if you ask.

I apologize, I should have been more clear in my post. I was attempting to say that Aren did indeed say they were tested but did not provide the testing means.

He has now provided the details that were missing.

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

All, the testing we completed with the 6" mecanums was fairly simple, four wheels, properly oriented, test bed weighed up to 150lbs (max robot with batteries and bumpers), and then handed to a High school intern who has no regard for the safety and well being of the wheels.
He was then told "break these" and came back after several hours of driving with the rubber worn off the rollers, no broken tabs.

-Aren

[Ether]

Originally Posted by ehochstein

Aren did indeed say they were tested but did not provide the testing means.

He has now provided the details that were missing.

All it took was to ask him to post more detail (as I did in an email to the address he gave).

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by Ether

All it took was to ask him to post more detail (as I did in an email to the address he gave).

I know, I prefer public information to private. Unfortunately, many teams won't go through the process to contact a company to acquire information. Personally, I would love to see the testing processes used on all AM and VEX products on the product webpages.

AndyMark did a great job documenting their tests on their Mecanum wheels, while haven't seen any quantifiable data on the VEX wheels.

I'm curious how the VEX wheels would hold up if they were put through the same tests as the AndyMark wheels.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by ehochstein

I'm curious how the VEX wheels would hold up if they were put through the same tests as the AndyMark wheels.

Do you consider the AndyMark tests in the linked document to be more "real world" than the Vex tests?

I'm curious how the AndyMark wheels would hold up if they were put through the same tests as the VEX wheels. :-)

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by Foster

I swear Ether is one of the few people that searches posts for an answer before he posts. Thanks Ether for setting a good example!

Not only that but he is scary fast at it too...

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

All, the testing we completed with the 6" mecanums was fairly simple, four wheels, properly oriented, test bed weighed up to 150lbs (max robot with batteries and bumpers), and then handed to a High school intern who has no regard for the safety and well being of the wheels.
He was then told "break these" and came back after several hours of driving with the rubber worn off the rollers, no broken tabs.

I later found out his testing included driving around on sidewalks and over significant bumps and door jams, in addition to running around on FRC carpet.

Note, we are also working on specific testing on the current field with additional weight for the game pieces, we expect positive results given the previous testing described above.

Hope this answers your questions,

-Aren

Thank you for the information. Can you comment on the 4" wheels and the testing they under went last year and what they are going through this year.

[Aren_Hill]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

Thank you for the information. Can you comment on the 4" wheels and the testing they under went last year and what they are going through this year.

The Drill was exactly the same, except they were mounted in a 2014 Drive In a day, rather than the test bed we'd used for the 6" wheels, which was a 2013 Drive in a day.

-Aren

[asid61]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Not only that but he is scary fast at it too...

Nah, I'm pretty sure he just memorizes everything on the boards.

[idahorobot]

Any new Vex reports after another week of trial?

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by idahorobot

Any new Vex reports after another week of trial?

We have been driving for almost 2 weeks now and we have no broken rollers. We even accidentally ran into a wall at full speed. Bent frame but no broken rollers.

[Grant Cox]

Originally Posted by idahorobot

Any new Vex reports after another week of trial?

A time-lapse video of the new 6" Mecanum Wheel Recycle Rush test is now up on the VEX YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwbjCPZ958

Test conditions:

• Chassis: 2013 Drive in a Day with custom upper structure to hold weight
• Weight: 118 lb (barbells)
• Field: "Regulation" Recycle Rush practice field. Scoring platforms made out of plywood and covered with HDPE.
• Duration: 4+ hours (excluding battery changes, motor cooldown, etc).

We were pleased with the results. Tl;dw version: no broken rollers, just some worn rubber.

[XaulZan11]

[quote=Grant Cox;1437686]A time-lapse video of the new 6" Mecanum Wheel Recycle Rush test is now up on the VEX YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwbjCPZ958
QUOTE]

How does this compare to the tests done last year? Or, did last year's wheels break under similar tests?

[idahorobot]

Thanks, great video.

We went with the Vex wheels so we could get on with our build several weeks ago. At the time Andymark was out of stock. Given the response from Vex and I gambled on their wheels.

Looks like the redesign is working well! On less thing to worry about.

We are just about complete and should be able to run our bot soon.

[Dale]

We've been doing a lot of fancy software development on our little Nanotube-based test robot while the competition robot is being built. We did have one roller break at the base where it interlocks with the hub. That was after maybe three hours drive time. We're hoping this is just an isolated case. This robot is about half the weight of an FRC robot and wasn't doing anything crazy at the time. It was no big deal to repair but we don't want to make a habit of it.