Team 4564's Tape Measure Climber

[bmammen]

[quote=Drew4564;1552810]Thanks! I'm also curious why the team wasn't allowed to use their tape measure climber. If anyone has any more information, I'd like to know!

I put together a build guide/showcase of sorts for our climber system that features better pictures and some detailed descriptions. Here's a link to it.


Great job! We've been struggling with something similar for a couple of weeks now. You wouldn't happen to have an STL file for the 3D printed housing? That's the most important piece to us at the moment as our tape seems to bunch up while extending.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by bmammen

Great job! We've been struggling with something similar for a couple of weeks now. You wouldn't happen to have an STL file for the 3D printed housing? That's the most important piece to us at the moment as our tape seems to bunch up while extending.

Not having the housing likely isn't your problem. The key to getting one of these lift to work is to pull the tape out with a second wheel, like the black stealth wheel they have. When extending, that wheel is trying to pull the tape out slightly faster or at the same speed as the spool is unspooling it.

57 has hit on a slightly different option, but it might be unique to our setup. We have a green banebots wheel that's pushing directly against the spool. This puts enough pressure on the tape that friction can transfer force from the bottom layer to the top layer and actually push out the top layer. We're still finalizing things, so I don't know exactly how reliable it will be, but that's what we've come up with.

[Drew4564]

[quote=bmammen;1557583]

Originally Posted by Drew4564

Great job! We've been struggling with something similar for a couple of weeks now. You wouldn't happen to have an STL file for the 3D printed housing? That's the most important piece to us at the moment as our tape seems to bunch up while extending.

I do have the files you're looking for! PM me your email and I'll be more than happy to send them to you.

Like Mr. Sevcik said, it's crucial to the design that there is a second wheel actively trying to pull the tape measure out.

On a somewhat related note, if anyone saw our performance at WPI, you likely saw that the tape measure climber gave us more trouble than it was worth. It was more difficult than expected to lower the tapes onto the bar after they were extended, as we repeatedly lowered the arms to far, breaking the tapes backwards. We're going to try to add some type of telescoping support, and will add to the build guide if we hit on any particularly good ideas. Suggestions are also more than welcome!

[bmammen]

[quote=Drew4564;1557622]

Originally Posted by bmammen

I do have the files you're looking for! PM me your email and I'll be more than happy to send them to you.

Like Mr. Sevcik said, it's crucial to the design that there is a second wheel actively trying to pull the tape measure out.

On a somewhat related note, if anyone saw our performance at WPI, you likely saw that the tape measure climber gave us more trouble than it was worth. It was more difficult than expected to lower the tapes onto the bar after they were extended, as we repeatedly lowered the arms to far, breaking the tapes backwards. We're going to try to add some type of telescoping support, and will add to the build guide if we hit on any particularly good ideas. Suggestions are also more than welcome!

Thanks! Sent you a PM

[hillale]

Team 3617 pulled off a tape measure climber this year as well. Not the best view of the lift in action, but check out the left hand tower starting at 2:05 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTcdz8sOPGI

We nicknamed the lift mechanism "Major Tom" in honor of David Bowie.