Transmissions Effective in This Year's Game?

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Mark Jones

We ordered some AndyMark gearboxes to replace some that I had designed which were very heavy and required pneumatics to shift. I made some modifications to the stock AM design to make it fit our application and to lighten them a little. While making these mods, I also redesigned the shifting to use a servo. They performed beautifully and gained us 8lbs to use on other features. Although we didn't shift to low very often, it was there when we needed it. I'll sacrifice the little extra weight for a 2-speed tranny any day.

A big thank you to Andy and Mark for a great product.

PS...Anyone what to see a picture of our reworked AndyMark gearboxes? I call them AndyMark squared...Get it...AndyMarkMark.

Sure--I got a glimpse of them at Palmetto, and they interested me. (Of course, there's always doing a white paper. )

To keep this from being a total threadjack, I'd say that a drivetrain this year beyond the KOP transmissions and a good set of wheels was nice to have, but certainly not required. I've seen both ends of the spectrum, and you can do well with either.

[Mark Jones]

I posted a pic in the gallery.

[Starke]

Wow! the Andy Mark shifters really impress me. I think our team should highly consider them for future years. You can modify them easily too. Nice job #343 for the modification. How long did that take?

The main advantage to the DeWalt XRP is the weight. I like them more when we fix our problem.

[nicholaswheaton]

yeah last year we used the planetary gear system which provided us with plenty of power for our treads but this year we decided that we would use wheels. we had trouble with driving because we normally used duel tread steering and this year we used omni-directional wheels with an odd controls, but the transmissions did a great job providing speed. We toped out at 12 feet per seconds.

in general the transmissions were great for the blend of speed and power.

[jdiwnab]

Reguarding the KOP transmissions, they worked great mostly. Our bot started turning to the side, and we thought that it was a motor problem, but it was really a drill bit in one of the trannies. Once that was removed, we drove just fine.

Hi guys
regarding the thread our team used the KOP gear box

We're rookies and I didn't even know we had a choice for the transmission

Well now I know and I'll be pitching the idea for next year
BTW: how do you make a transmission that shifts gears
Can anyone redirect me to a website or white paper?

Or give me pics?

thanks

[Andy A.]

95 used the KoP transmissions with all 4 CIM's driving two center wheels. We used a shorter output sprocket (15 tooth vs the stock 21), to slow up the bot and give a little bit more umph. Ultimately, the limiting factor was the skyway wheels, and their perchant for just stripping down to the hub and spinning away on the carpet. All the same, we managed to get around the field as fast as needed and push some 'bots when needed.

The time saved by the kitbot system was invaluable. I didn't have a single complaint with the transmissions the whole season. The weight of the parts is more then offset by the reliability and confidence you get with a 'commercial' system. In anycase, we only drove two wheels so we saved a good deal on chain.

We did have a wonderful experience using a XRP transmission on our arm. I couldn't say enough good things about that. Suffice to say that we will be picking up some XRP trannys in advance for next year (try finding one in Feb!). I can easily see them being used in our drive train.

I'm ready for a 'bot with out any drive chains!

-Andy A.

[OneAngryDaisy]

Originally Posted by Spikey

I would have to argue that putting more wheels on the ground made a differnce, we faced robots with just as strong drive trains, but because we could put more wheels on the floor we could push people quite well.
Teams like 56 and 103 had beautiful machines with amazing transmissions, however we faced them in pushing matches and in one case when 103 was trying to cap our home row we pushed them sideways into a wall.

What also helped was some gearing down that we did off of the tranny shafts and onto the wheels. That probably made a large differnce over the kit configuration, but still the kit trannys were very well built and could provide lots of power when used correctly.

You might note that both 56 and 103 went with casters, 53 using *four big tires in the front and two casters in the back... I personally thought this move was brilliant- anyone who saw 103 spin around and fly to the other side knew that their machine was well-thought out.

[Bcahn836]

The KOP transmissions help up pretty well for us this year. With this being our 4th year we really haven't got into building fancy transmissions partly because we don't have the machines until recently to build our own, besides we have focused much of our time on our arms and programing. My first year the team's 2nd year 2003 we stripped those drill motors like every match due to our aggressive driving on the ramp. 2004 we had no problems and didn't break anything on the robot at all. 2005 the kop tranny held up we got pushed around by a few teams but not many and we didn't break the transmissions or motors, we bent some cosmetics and bumpers but that is normal. I hope next year being the 5th year of the team we have a game that will focus on the drive train so we can focus on a sweet set up since we pretty much have figured our arms and programming.