Our Banebots Experience

[Daniel_LaFleur]

I will add our experiance with Banebots and their transmissions at the BAE GSR in New Hampshire.

First off, our drivetrain setup.

4 wheel drive, Skid steer, direct drive, 1 CIM motor per wheel, high traction tires, 16:1 upgrade kit. We are a ramp bot and play solid defense.

When we sent in for our 16:1 hardened plates, Banebots sent us 3 (not 4) 12:1 plates. Since we assumed these were the 16:1 (4:1 secondary stage) plates we just figured we'd pick up 1 more at the regional (since they said they would have spares there). Well needless to say, they did not have any stocked at the regional. The spare parts guys called Banebots and their rep brough us 1 16:1 hardened carrier plate (which is what we asked for) in about an hour.

A couple of hours later (still on Thursday) we took apart our transmissions and found out that they had shipped us the wrong type. At this point we had no choice but to go with the unhardened 16:1 transmissions. The only thing we did to 'protect' these transmissions was to have a software ramp up / ramp down.

8 compitition rounds, and 7 elimination rounds later we (and our wonderful alliance partners 501 and 175) won the BAE GSR. We played each match running hard defense and pushing those transmissions to the limit and they never failed us. They now have more that 30 degrees of backlash and our 'bot doesn't really want to drive straight, but they held out.

So, just to back up what Dr. Joe has been saying all along, These transmissions are not bad. They are inexpensive and we (as robotics teams) tend to push these things beyond their tolerances. We will have to replace them before the Championship event, but we knew, going in, that these may not survive.

All, in all, I believe that these transmissions are good as long as you understand their limitations.


JMHO
--Dan L.