56mm Banebot problems @ Championship

[ZZII 527]

I think it would be worthwhile, now that the crisis of getting replacement carriers to hundreds of teams is over, for BaneBots to do a very serious case study (with FRC teams) of the problem. It seems like there have been mixed results the whole time, but if there were a particular set of conditions that consistently led to success or failure, these would be good to at least document.

I know Joe Johnson started on this during the build season, asking for feedback from teams that had problems, but I think now that the season is over, it could use a more thorough revisit and I think the teams that used BaneBots products, for better or for worse, would be glad to help.

Personally, I would like to see BaneBots return next year with an improved product. I like the planetary option for drive gearboxes for many of the reasons mentioned above. I bit my nails for two months, but in the end the four BaneBots gearboxes we used all survived (with some modifications that I would like to see made stock in next year's models).

[eugenebrooks]

We had the 56mm Banebot transmissions on our 6 wheel drive
robot, using the two motor adapters and 12:1 gear ratio.
We competed at three regionals and the nationals, with some
very aggressive defensive play at times.

We replaced the carrier plates and shafts with 4130 steel,
using a square drive for broach cost reasons, that we heat
treated in our shop and had no problems with our transmissions.
We also broke the transmissions in with no load, in both directions,
and then fully cleaned and lubed them prior to any hard use.

I think that Banebots needs to give some careful attention
to the details on the carrier plate and output shaft, and
these transmissions will be just fine for next year.

Eugene