What COTS parts would you like to see?

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by Nemo

Rollers are a pain. It would be nice if there were a couple more COTS methods to transmit torque to a roller. The only one I know of is from Competition Robot Parts.

Use a VersaHub. You can attach the VersaHub to larger diameter pulleys by buying or printing some sort of insert with an ID the same as the hub and an OD that matches the ID of your roller. We did that this year with our 4" diameter roller and it worked great.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by JesseK

You could tap the base aluminum pulley, close to the ring, and use a washer to retain the ring. This is similar to how many gearboxes retain bearings (AM Toughbox Nano, WCP DS gearboxes, and a few others I'm sure).

Thanks, that's a great idea.

[bigbeezy]

Smaller 3/8" hex bearings. Ideally ones that could be used in a 1x1 tube. So like 7/8" OD with a flange. We used crummy conveyor bearings from Grainger with our collector, which surprisingly didn't fail during competition.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by marshall

Parts to make the construction of bumpers easier. I know Andy had a design for a corner piece and I still want to see it made. It would make the lives of those who help other teams with making bumpers every year much easier.

AndyMark sells this bumper kit for the AM14U3 http://www.andymark.com/AM14U3-p/am-3152.htm Much of that was included in the version shipped as the KOP chassis, it included the right and left angle brackets, the thumb screws and the t nuts. There was also a separate instruction sheet on how to use those parts to create bumpers. It did not include the corner angles but personally I prefer to glue and screw the two pieces together and have found that method to be more than robust enough.

[Bkeeneykid]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I would like to see a better solution for using LED's. Right now LED's paralyze my team with how many choices / setups there are, so usually there's a mediocre attempt at them but never a finished product.
- How do we connect power to the LED's?
- Which LED brand, model, and length do we use?
- Do we really have to care that each light is addressable, seriously?
- To control them do we use an offboard processor, use a Spike, or is there a better way?

Would love to have something simpler that doesn't depend on in-house custom circuitry or an arduino. Plug this 12" LED strip into this device, then plug this device into the PDB and into the RoboRIO using these connectors. Then use this sample code to get going with writing different colors/brightnesses or blinking lights to the LED's.

FWIW, introductory courses in embedded electronics in college were all about blinking LED's, and connection of those circuits to the corresponding code was way more straightforward than the FRC LED situation.

Thing is, most LED strips are one of two solutions: RGB LEDs, or Addressable WS8211 or similar LEDs. I know teams that I know (I've never used LED Strips on a robot before) use the VRM's 2 Amp 5 Volt rail to power LEDs. I'd recommend one of two models: Adafruit Dotstar or Adafruit NeoPixels. These are both addressable. In reality, you don't need addressable really, but it makes controlling them easier, and sometimes it's just nicer to have control of individual sections. The main difference between the two, is that one (the Dotstar) is able to be controlled directly from the RoboRIO, albeit at a higher price. The NeoPixels are much more common, but require a special timing protocol, which must be driven by an Arduino or some other single process device. You may be able to find places that have basically identical strips to these Adafruit brands, just search for WS8211,WS8212,WS8212B, or WK6812 LED strips on Ebay or other shopping website. DotStar strips use a less common APA102 driver on the chips, so you'll find less of these types of strips on places like Ebay.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Bkeeneykid

Thing is, most LED strips are one of two solutions: RGB LEDs, or Addressable WS8211 or similar LEDs. I know teams that I know (I've never used LED Strips on a robot before) use the VRM's 2 Amp 5 Volt rail to power LEDs. I'd recommend one of two models: Adafruit Dotstar or Adafruit NeoPixels. These are both addressable. In reality, you don't need addressable really, but it makes controlling them easier, and sometimes it's just nicer to have control of individual sections. The main difference between the two, is that one (the Dotstar) is able to be controlled directly from the RoboRIO, albeit at a higher price. The NeoPixels are much more common, but require a special timing protocol, which must be driven by an Arduino or some other single process device. You may be able to find places that have basically identical strips to these Adafruit brands, just search for WS8211,WS8212,WS8212B, or WK6812 LED strips on Ebay or other shopping website. DotStar strips use a less common APA102 driver on the chips, so you'll find less of these types of strips on places like Ebay.

I get it - there are options. Yet they're wide, varied, sometimes incompatible and sometimes take the power ports we'd rather put to other uses.

Or perhaps CTRE could come out with a couple more 5V ports on the VRM?

[Knufire]

Originally Posted by maxnz

Yeah, but if it had the pwm cable pre-attached, like most VEX EDR electronics do, then it would be a lot easier to wire. That's mainly what I was getting at.

Try this: http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2899.htm.

It's more expensive than your standard pot, but much less nosiy, much smaller, and comes with a pre-terminated cable.

Originally Posted by waterwaterwater

2. Banebot sized rollers out of a hardier plastic (polyurethane?).

AM Stealth Wheels?

4. Something to help with chain tensioning, perhaps a small kit? (I have no idea how this would work though).

If this is a chain that never spins a full revolution (arms, elevators), MISUMI sells some made-for-chain turnbuckles that connect with masterlinks.

5. A motor testing kit to check for damaged motors.

http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2671.htm

On the topic of rollers, I've found the secret is the 1.25 x 0.0625 tube. The ~1.125 ID makes a number of COTS hubs and bearings fit nicely.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Knufire

Try this: http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2899.

It's more expensive than your standard pot, but much less nosiy, much smaller, and comes with a pre-terminated cable.

Try this link. For whatever reason, (Not a web developer so can't tell you why, AM's links require the .htm at the end.

[mastachyra]

I was drawing up plans for a linear actuator that uses either the BAG motor or 775pro. It could be built just like the DART actuators and be much smaller. I just don't have access to any machines that can help make it.

It'd be a great off-season project for a team and I think they'd sell like hot(cheese)cakes

[maxnz]

Originally Posted by Knufire

Try this: http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2899.htm.

It's more expensive than your standard pot, but much less nosiy, much smaller, and comes with a pre-terminated cable.

But if VEX makes it, then it could be designed to work with the ThunderHex shaft without having to drill it out.

Also, it seems that you still would need to crimp or sauter the other end of that connection wire. I'm hoping to just have a potentiometer that has a cable with a pwm end with the other end connected internally. It's a LOT easier to wire.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by maxnz

But if VEX makes it, then it could be designed to work with the ThunderHex shaft without having to drill it out.

Also, it seems that you still would need to crimp or sauter the other end of that connection wire. I'm hoping to just have a potentiometer that has a cable with a pwm end with the other end connected internally. It's a LOT easier to wire.

This is Definitly a valid product. The cable thing doesn't bother me much but it would be really nice to have a potentiometer that wrapped around a hex shaft.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by Mr V

AndyMark sells this bumper kit for the AM14U3 http://www.andymark.com/AM14U3-p/am-3152.htm Much of that was included in the version shipped as the KOP chassis, it included the right and left angle brackets, the thumb screws and the t nuts. There was also a separate instruction sheet on how to use those parts to create bumpers. It did not include the corner angles but personally I prefer to glue and screw the two pieces together and have found that method to be more than robust enough.

Not what I want. It's not simple enough (And yes, I know how simple it is). Andy knows what I want. He had a 3D printed version of it at champs 2 years ago. Someone at AM should tell him to make it already.

Originally Posted by hrench

a CAN plug-in vision aiming module.

Ain't gonna happen anytime soon for a lot of reasons. Unless of course all you want is the PIXY CAM with a CAN interface... you can make that happen without a whole lot of effort... use the HERO board to do it maybe?

All that being said, 900 is actively talking about how to "cheesecake" vision onto other robots in the future... no idea what that means at the moment but we're talking about it.

The biggest issue with vision isn't the vision or the detection. It's getting more teams to add encoders to their drivetrains and mechanisms. You need feedback to make use of the vision data.

I'd love to see more COTS options for encoder integration.

I would also love to see the CIM-Encoder that AM introduced this season improved. It's hollow and the little center spacer plate isn't square. Make it filled in, more robust, and square the center plate.

And I REALLY hope brushless is coming based on what CTRE was showing off. I'd love to see it happen.

[jeremylee]

Originally Posted by bigbeezy

Smaller 3/8" hex bearings. Ideally ones that could be used in a 1x1 tube. So like 7/8" OD with a flange. We used crummy conveyor bearings from Grainger with our collector, which surprisingly didn't fail during competition.

217-2733 from Vex?

But in hex.. I like it

[FrankJ]

A lot of the industrial sensors do not pull low enough to reliably switch the Roborio 3.3 Volt digital input. A packaged opto-isolator that sinks the input to the roborio level would be nice. Maybe even with a transistor that inverts the logic back.

A Spike replacement

[dv/dt]

I'm sure I'm missing something and some of this has been alluded to, but how about a small, lightweight, easily mounted replacement for a window motor? Something with low rpm and modest torque. The window motors are flimsy and hard to mount. I love the versaplanetaries but would prefer not to have to use a 3 stage reduction to get to the sub-100 rpm realm.
Clue me in on what you use in these applications.