FRC T-bone-ing and Hexagonal drive

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

The important thing to remember here is that a hexagonal frame perimeter is an ENHANCEMENT and not a necessity. Don't sacrifice build time to design a hexagonal drivetrain unless you think that t-bones are what's holding you back.

In my opinion, only the top ~5% of FRC teams can both benefit from a hexagonal drivetrain and have the resources to build one without sacrificing elsewhere on the robot.

+1

In 2014 3467 had some extra edges up our sides which were a necessity for our shooter packaging and not added for t-bones which ended up being a benefit in a heavily defensive game.

We poured a lot of time and effort into the frame extensions, bumpers, mounting, & maintenance that didn't need to be spent there. I wouldn't advocate building another frame like that in the future and fully agree with Ty that unless you have an higher level of manpower, experience, & resources you should probably avoid trying this during build season.

To help with t-bones I would prefer a drop down omni wheel or ball caster that teams can easily remove or add depending on their needs without locking our drivebase into a specific design/layout early in the year.

Personally the bumper construction & mounting is what makes this frame style very hard to pull off easily.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Can anyone elaborate on what exactly is happening with the plywood in the bumper in a robot like 1678 pictured above? Is it separate pieces cut and joined somehow?

Can't speak for how 1678 achieved theirs, but on 3467 we had five individual pieces of plywood with the three side pieces held together by a patiently cut down/sanded 2x4 since we didn't have access to sheet metal. It was as unpleasant as it sounded and very weak. IIRC a versa gusset or two was thrown in at some point after the plywood started to crack.