What NEW Vex Accessories Would You Like TO See?

[foobert]

Where do I begin?....

• 4", 5", 6" Axles - hacksaw

• A way to lock a clutch, motor and axle together so that the clutch/axle won't fall out - yes that would be nice

• A Shaft Encoder that understands direction and counts up/down accordingly - just had the vex encoder open the other day considering printing out an encoder disk and sticking it to the plastic disk in there already then putting in a piece of perf board with a couple of hammatsu p5587's

• A high bandwith hard-wired connection between Vextrollers or one controller and another computer/coprocessor - you've got two serial ports, there must be something you can hook up

• An IR communication transceiver for high bandwidth comms with other Vextrollers or other computers/coprocessors - you've got two serial ports, there must be something you can hook up

• An RF communication transceiver for high bandwidth comms woth other Vextrollers or other computers/coprocessors - you've got two serial ports, there must be something you can hook up

• Individual and grouped LEDs of multiple colors that can be set on/off by using serial I/O to send command "bits"/"words" - one 74hc595, 8 resistors and 8 leds

• Audio outputs - piezo speaker

• A swivel joint made from a captive ball pierced by a rod/axle - check out sites for radio controlled airplanes

I'm sure more ideas will come to me shortly....

[SamC]

Has anybody found alternate gears and sprockets available for other sets that work with VEX items aswell?

[gblake]

Foobert,

I appreciate the friendly intent of your info; but particularly for items like the high bandwidth communication, I was kind-of looking for something that didn't require a hundred or so hours of my time to research, code/build and implement robustly.

For the axles, I figure they have hacksaws at VexLabs (or in China) and I am glad to let them worry about cutting straight and about getting rid of all the burrs.

Just as soon as someone wants to put all of those items you describe into mass produced packages that I can pick up at my local Radio shack for $5-10 each; then I'll buy some.

I enjoy hacking as much as the next guy, but for the purposes of this thread, I am one of those guys who wants to hack at a higher level of abstraction than the one you imply.

Maybe if we could get together in the same room you and I could crank out something interesting; but until then I'm going to push VexLabs to do all the cutting and soldering, so that I can do the using.

Blake (still hopeful) Ross

Originally Posted by foobert

Where do I begin?....

• 4", 5", 6" Axles - hacksaw

• A way to lock a clutch, motor and axle together so that the clutch/axle won't fall out - yes that would be nice

• A Shaft Encoder that understands direction and counts up/down accordingly - just had the vex encoder open the other day considering printing out an encoder disk and sticking it to the plastic disk in there already then putting in a piece of perf board with a couple of hammatsu p5587's

• A high bandwith hard-wired connection between Vextrollers or one controller and another computer/coprocessor - you've got two serial ports, there must be something you can hook up

• An IR communication transceiver for high bandwidth comms with other Vextrollers or other computers/coprocessors - you've got two serial ports, there must be something you can hook up

• An RF communication transceiver for high bandwidth comms woth other Vextrollers or other computers/coprocessors - you've got two serial ports, there must be something you can hook up

• Individual and grouped LEDs of multiple colors that can be set on/off by using serial I/O to send command "bits"/"words" - one 74hc595, 8 resistors and 8 leds

• Audio outputs - piezo speaker

• A swivel joint made from a captive ball pierced by a rod/axle - check out sites for radio controlled airplanes

I'm sure more ideas will come to me shortly....

[Jeremiah Johnson]

I find a Dremel to be infinitely more usefull than a hacksaw. And you don't need a file most of the time to get rid of burrs.

[gblake]

Hey Foobert!

Can we convince you to post more complete descriptions of some of your suggestions in the Homemade Parts thread of this forum? That seems like a good place for me to go looking when I am ready to do something like build the LED gizmo you distilled into a one-liner in this thread.

I think that creating a small library of that sort of design material would be a useful investment?

Blake
PS: If the library already exists somewhere, please just point me at it or put the pointer into a new (read-only) thread with a corresponding title.

[Dmkaz]

Here are a few ideas I had..

- As someone mentioned before a way to lock the clutch to the motor and also a way to lock the shaft into the clutch

- Possibly a few different motors geared toward different applications, such as high torque low speed, low torque high speed, etc.

- Different brackets / different ways to mount motors & servos. From my expierence with the Vex kit I find the way the motor mounts kind of awkward in different applications. Different brackets that could attach to it would be helpful, or a few different holes on the motor itself for different mounting positions.

- New, Stronger Chain. I recently made a ball launcher with a 3500-4000rpm flywheel. Part of it was chain drive, key word was. When I got it up to full speed and accidently tapped the joystick backwards.. little was left of the chain =)

- As someone mentioned as well, a worm gear system for high torque applications such as arms, etc.

- Potentiometer. Yes I read you can buy one and modify it to fit your use, but I'd rather buy one I wouldn't have to rip apart.

- Keyed PWM extension cables. Readily avalible standard, but fit much nicer keyed.

That's all I can think of offhand right now, but Im sure I'll come up with more later.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Dmkaz

Here are a few ideas I had..

- Different brackets / different ways to mount motors & servos. From my expierence with the Vex kit I find the way the motor mounts kind of awkward in different applications. Different brackets that could attach to it would be helpful, or a few different holes on the motor itself for different mounting positions.

I want to STRONGLY agree with the need for servo mounts that permit mounting the servo on a support in any of the 6 orientations (3 orthogonal axes) possible for the servo . Not being able to do this is constantly (in just about every machine/bot I build) ruining othewise good solutions to design problems.

I suspect a bracket(s) and/or clamp(s) separate from the servo is the right way to do this.

Mounts that are integrated into the servo will make the servo larger than it is now; and that will mean it will fit equally poorly in all orientations.

A separate bracket, that is used only when necessary, won't get clog up your designs in situations where the current servo plus its integrated mounts is good enough.