VEX Pro Parts Feedback, 2015

[steelerborn]

The VexPro clamping gearboxes worked really well for us this year.

I really like how they can also accept VersaPlanetary (VP) gearboxes. We used a cim, using the cim adapter, into the VP gearboxes which we put onto the clamping gearboxes. We were able to test so many different gear reductions without changing the overall system. We had no failures on our lift system because of this.

Some things to change:
VexPro please give us 8 bolts and 8 nuts in the clamping gearbox assembly when you order it! We needed to use all 8 on our lift gearboxes otherwise we would see flexing on the gearbox plastic. Luckily we ordered spares so we just took the 4 from them.

Also there were some instances when we were first installing them that the hex cutout on the gearbox became stripped and made it very hard to get the nut out without destroying the plastic near the gearbox. We learned to watch the nut and be careful not to strip the cutout, but a few simple redesigns would make this problem go away.

[cbale2000]

6" Omni Wheels: We used 7 of these on our robots H-Drive this year. It was our first time using Omni Wheels and we were not disappointed, the wheels held up all year didn't have any issues with durability. The fact that the wheels shipped already assembled was also a huge time-saver.
Our only complaint was that we got quite a bit of material buildup (presumably from the carpet and plastic from the ramps) that proved difficult to clean up and negatively affected traction. We purchased a set of replacement wheels and swapped them out at the MSC as a precaution.

Single Speed, Double Reduction Gearboxs: We've used VexPro Ball Shifters before but this was our first time using the single speed gearboxes. The gearboxes held up all season and required no maintenance after initially assembly.
When we assembled the gearboxes, we did notice that one of the three gearboxes had some difficulty going together (the two pieces of the casing would not close all the way). Later after wiring up the gearboxes, we also noticed one of them ran very rough (sounded like grinding gears, and occasionally the gearbox seemed to "catch" on something). Disassembling and reassembling the gearboxes didn't provide a fix to the problem, but after running the gearbox under power for a while, the issue seemed to resolve itself. We're hoping to get the gearboxes apart again now that the season is over and see if we can diagnose the problem.

VersaPlanetary CIM Adaptor: Having had to make our own adapter (out of a solid block of aluminum) last year, the VexPro CIM Adapter is a welcome addition for our team. The weight savings is excellent and it held up surprisingly well to the weight of a MiniCIM cantilevered off the back of it, and along with a 35:1 Versaplanetary, drove our conveyor system without any issues.

Colson Performa Wheels: When building our tote intake this year, we initially used 4" VexPro Traction wheels, direct driven by VersaPlanetary gearboxes with bag motors, to collect totes into our robot. This proved extremely ineffective during our initial tests, so we started looking for other options. We came across the 4" x 0.875", 1/2" Hex bore Colson wheels which seemed like they would be a great fit for our collector (having heard of how great Colson wheels are from other teams for years). While the Colson wheels were far more effective at grabbing totes then the traction wheels had been, they still didn't have the grip we were looking for, and additionally, the wheels started to wear down after our first competition.
We ended up replacing the Colson wheels with 4" Urethane Drive Rollers (60A) from McMaster for our last two competitions (thanks to team 314 for the idea) which worked much better for tote collection.
We have certainly not written off Colson wheels for future projects, but they were not a good fit for our robot this year.


Suggestions:

• Standardize wheel widths - Our initial robot design called for 6" Traction wheels, but after deciding to switch to H-Drive, we had to widen our drive base to accommodate the slightly wider 6in Omni-Wheels. Ideally, it would be nice if all same-diameter wheels were interchangeable with no modification.
• Make a shaft spacer that mates on one side to the VersaKey pattern in wheels and gears - I absolutely hate spacers in a drive system; there is nothing worse than having to chase after a dozen tiny rolling spacers when you have to swap out a wheel or fix a chain within a few minutes. Having spacers that mated to the VersaKey pasterns on VexPro wheels and gears would greatly alleviate this issue. I actually attempted to make such spacers myself using our teams 3D printer, but it proved problematic to build without dissolveable support material or hours of sanding off regular support material.
• It would be great if VEX stocked K1 Chain attachments for 35 chain (and 25 chain if possible). You can buy it from McMaster but it's 3 times more expensive then other sources (which have much slower shipping).

[nathannfm]

Originally Posted by asid61

I want 3/8" hex sprockets, or at least versahubs! Why are there no 3/8" hex versahubs!?

THIS! How am I supposed to use the 3/8 hex bevel gears on a swerve module that has chain to the wheel. 3/8" hex sprockets would save us a ton of time and money.

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

Take this with a grain of salt based on where I'm from, but the WCP 32DP gears have to be some of my favorite products so far. They make getting a large reduction in a lightweight and compact packaging simpler and more effective than planetary gearboxes (and in my experiences, more reliable). The seamless integration with pinions for the BAG motor, RS775, and RS550 alongside their perfectly chosen gear sizes (in 20, 40, 60, and 80 teeth) make it so that most any mechanism (especially intakes) can be powered off of one or two stages to get the perfect reduction.

These are a product I haven't seen widely used or known about that I feel would greatly help teams accomplish some of their more complex or weight-dependent design goals.

Why are these not available from vexpro.com and why are they all on backorder, stuff like this makes me nervous about planing to use them in season as much as I would love to try them out.

Originally Posted by nathannfm

Why are these not available from vexpro.com and why are they all on backorder, stuff like this makes me nervous about planing to use them in season as much as I would love to try them out.

Because they're from WCP, not VEXPro. RC would be the better person to ask, but as I understand it, the two only act as distributors of some of each other's products - they are still their own independent companies (hence why WCP only sells vexpro items and not vexiq or vrc things, and why VEX doesn't sell WCP gears and sensors, among other things).

I'm not too sure about the backorder status (once again RC is the person to ask). Emailing him is the best way of getting information that you don't know, and it seems so many people have questions but don't ask, so please do ask. I'm no official affiliate of the company, but I imagine it's hard for them to know what questions need answering and what could use some clarification if nobody asks them.

[IceStorm]

Would love to see a 3/8 hex bore sprocket line come out for #25 chain. 1/2 hex is great but a lot of applications don't need a shaft that thick.

VP cim adapter was awesome. Will use them again in future years.

The vex pro line in general has helped our team become such a more competitive team.

[shewejff]

We used tons of VexPro components this year. Everything worked flawlessly.

The only small request would be for the end of the 1/2" round output shaft for the VersaPlanetary to be drilled and tapped just like the 1/2" hex output shaft.

[Bennett548]

Lots of positives for VEXPro this year.

Here are the improvements needed:

1) Further reduce costs of everything. Maybe make the versaplanetary ring gear segments out of nylon with an embedded aluminum ring gear.

2) All the hexes and versakey patterns need to be clocked the same! We had to cut a double sprocket in half to get a set of hex keyed sprockets keyed the same.

3) Inventories need to be increased. I'll forgive the omni and mecanum shortage this year, but gears and sprockets are going to be used every year, and shouldn't go out of stock. This may clash with comment 1, but I'd like to see an attempt at both.

[Jared Russell]

Finding a source of by-the-foot 15mm wide, 5mm pitch HTD belting for our elevator was difficult, as (Out Of) Stock Drive Products failed us and we had to resort to calling various distributors around the country.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Bennett548

Lots of positives for VEXPro this year.

Here are the improvements needed:

1) Further reduce costs of everything. Maybe make the versaplanetary ring gear segments out of nylon with an embedded aluminum ring gear.

2) All the hexes and versakey patterns need to be clocked the same! We had to cut a double sprocket in half to get a set of hex keyed sprockets keyed the same.

3) Inventories need to be increased. I'll forgive the omni and mecanum shortage this year, but gears and sprockets are going to be used every year, and shouldn't go out of stock. This may clash with comment 1, but I'd like to see an attempt at both.

And a pony unicorn.

[Ben Martin]

We used a lot of VEXpro stuff -- hex bearings, sprockets, gears, pinions, hubs, mecanum wheels, hex shaft, chain, masterlinks, clamping gearboxes, VP's, shaft collars, spacers, clamping bearing blocks, cams, versaframe, gusset plates, bag motors. We also ordered a lot of omni wheels before we switched to mecanum. Definitely the vast majority of our robot budget went to Vex/The Robot Space.

4 competitions --> No item from VEXpro failed.

My only request would be to make the two top bolt holes for the clamping gearbox have a little more meat around the top on the motor insert side--the nut cradle stripped on one gearbox when the nut wasn't properly seated in the hole, and a little more nylon around the top of the cradle would help a lot to prevent that.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Bennett548

Lots of positives for VEXPro this year.

Here are the improvements needed:

1) Further reduce costs of everything. Maybe make the versaplanetary ring gear segments out of nylon with an embedded aluminum ring gear.

2) All the hexes and versakey patterns need to be clocked the same! We had to cut a double sprocket in half to get a set of hex keyed sprockets keyed the same.

3) Inventories need to be increased. I'll forgive the omni and mecanum shortage this year, but gears and sprockets are going to be used every year, and shouldn't go out of stock. This may clash with comment 1, but I'd like to see an attempt at both.

I imagine at least some supply issues were because of the labor disputes on the West Coast ports that gridlocked everyone's supply chain. Tying up cash in a large inventory for unlikely events like that is probably mutually exclusive with cheaper goodies.

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

If VexPro had some items that would give teams flexibility in design without having to wait and see, it would be an incredible customer experience. IE - a gearbox speed sampler kit that will give me a variety of speeds .. snip..

What separates this from the existing Versaplanetaries? Buy a bunch of stages and mix and match to your heart's content.

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

I imagine at least some supply issues were because of the labor disputes on the West Coast ports that gridlocked everyone's supply chain. Tying up cash in a large inventory for unlikely events like that is probably mutually exclusive with cheaper goodies.

This and as Vexpro expands teams are using more and more and trying new things meaning more demand. Who knew we'd have elevators meaning a high demand for chains and sprockets for lifting.

Our team purchased an insane number of sprockets this year for 25 chain, something we've never used before but I think we ended up with close to 80 sprockets by the time we had what we needed and ordered for spares. Glad we were able to help a few teams at the Championship who needed 18t hex sprockets that ran out a long time ago.

[Electronica1]

There might not be a ton of demand for it (at least, other than my team), but will vex ever start selling 2 inch colson wheels with hex bore?

[Conor Ryan]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

I'm looking for reasonably priced packages that will help speed up the build season process (basically to take shipping out of the equation). If VexPro had some items that would give teams flexibility in design without having to wait and see, it would be an incredible customer experience. IE - a gearbox speed sampler kit that will give me a variety of speeds I can change in and out or a kit of Versaframe parts that will let me prototype manipulators easily. I'm more concerned about manipulator design than Drivetrain kits.

Originally Posted by Ian Curtis

What separates this from the existing Versaplanetaries? Buy a bunch of stages and mix and match to your heart's content.

Vex knows what teams buy the most of. Commonly used ratios that give you range of power would be a good starting point for a VP starter kit.

A new teacher that just inherited a robotics team wouldn't know where to start with this process, thats why I'd like a preconfigured kit, of course I know you can just get a bunch of stuff now, I'm just lowering the bar.

[mman1506]

I wonder if a dual ball bearing supported VP output option would be useful for teams. Pretty much every VP failure I've seen is from excessive combined loads and VPs are just one of those things that teams tend to abuse. Most industrial planetaries of similar size like the Neugart PLE series are dual ball-bearing supported from the factory.