Question about Climbing the Tower

[Razer0901]

Hello everyone,

As a second year team, we are looking for advice for mechanisms to climb the tower. We are looking into using an elevator like what many teams used in 2011 for their lift (eg. 254's) , but without a reference we have no idea what kind of gearbox/motors we would need to lift up our robot (120 lb)

I understand that without knowing the sizes of the drum or the lift configuration it would be hard to determine the gearing and ratio of the power, but could anyone tell us what we would be looking at for power? CIMs? MiniCIMs? 1:10? 1:50? 1:75? Also, if ratio goes above 1:10 what kind of COTS gearboxes are we looking at since drivetrain gearboxes are usually 1:10, and VersaPlanatary can't take CIMs above 1:50ish based on the recommendations.

Also could people provide insight into successful climbers in general and how they were implemented? I have seen 1114's 2013 climber, 254's 2013 climbers, as well as many others, but I don't understand how they work. (eg. Winch? Direct chain drive?) Even if they don't directly apply to this year's game, they could be useful info into climbers in general.

Thanks!

-Razer0901