We need help... A lot of it

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

A second cable is only needed if your lift plate is too light, or your friction is too heavy, for the lift to lower itself. As I read your posts, your first cable (pull on lift) is also your second cable (pull on lower). If this is correct, you can pretty much ignore the "second cable" posts.

Also, if this is correct (that is, your cable is doubly terminated on the chassis end), you can make your system more repeatable/reliable by adding more wraps to the shaft/axle/spool on the lift side. This basically means making a somewhat longer cable in the shop (add one or two wraps around that spool), including it in your WITHHOLDING ALLOWANCE, then replacing it on the Thursday of your competition.

Originally Posted by EricH

Yep. Often for winches, that's a bit larger and drum-shaped.


It's more of a "hold-in-place" on the wheel, giving it more cable to work with (having the same effect as a grippier wheel, theoretically). You'd have a tensioner (turnbuckles work well) elsewhere in the system and run a pretty tight cable for this trick to work, but it should be. Given that you've got a small(ish) wheel width-wise, you might be able to get away with 2 wraps.

I'm going to suggest following the procedure I posted earlier, with the cable not permanently terminated until you get the lift working reliably. It might take extra cable wraps or some grippy material or both, but it should give you some working room.

Thanks guys its such an easy fix Im mad we didnt get to do it today. The good thing is our mecanum wheels are working and I had a little bit of driving practice getting a good feel for this years control layout. We should be able to make all the fixes necessary in an hour or 2 on practice day of the comp. Thanks all