pic: A drivetrain prototype idea

[GMAdan]

loading photo ...

[Tim Delles]

Good design but a few questions.

1.) The electronics look really low to the ground. Are you worried about them hitting when you drive over a bump or such.

2.) what is the ground clearance?

3.) Is there an arm that is going on the other side of the robot, because it seems like the side closest to us is really heave right now (battery, gearbox, motors...)

4.) also how does the chain wrap go for the wheels?

[GMAdan]

Well you are right they are really low. Well i might as well say what it is for. I want to make a robo-snow blower. So on the other side the snow blowing stuff will counter weigh. I want to do a gear connection between the wheels, I am still working on the gear sizes and other things.
p.s. I do plan to seal the electronics to keep the snow out. That is one reason for the compactness.

[Nuttyman54]

Is the center wheel lowered, or are you going for the Team 25 brute force approach?

[GMAdan]

brute force

[Bharat Nain]

That looks a lot like one of our drive trains so I can tell you that this design should work. Putting stand-offs between two plates is nice because you can take the whole thing apart really quickly and it is fairly light-weight. Are you using chain-drive or gears? Any more info? Look at our drive train designs in the Behind the Design book.

[GMAdan]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

That looks a lot like one of our drive trains so I can tell you that this design should work. Putting stand-offs between two plates is nice because you can take the whole thing apart really quickly and it is fairly light-weight. Are you using chain-drive or gears? Any more info? Look at our drive train designs in the Behind the Design book.

we are going geared. We did looked at your section in the book but we still have some questions and problems we are trying to work out.

[nparikh]

Originally Posted by GMAdan

we are going geared. We did looked at your section in the book but we still have some questions and problems we are trying to work out.

Well if you have any questions, please feel free to ask-pm email, etc. We'd be more than happy to help you out if we can.

[Mike Hendricks]

I would consider running treads if you plan on driving around in the snow ..

Also, consider using a EDU RC (or a vex RC) instead of a full sized RC/OI setup. A much cheaper approach, and you can control it using any RC car/plane controller.

Looks cool though ..

[Cartwright]

It looks quite sturdy, but I question its maneuverability. If good turning is important, its seems like you'd need at least a bit of a rock in the middle wheels. The gaps at the corners seem like a bit of a hazard to the electronics. The design itself looks neat and powerful though.

[Noah Kleinberg]

Originally Posted by GMAdan

Well you are right they are really low. Well i might as well say what it is for. I want to make a robo-snow blower. So on the other side the snow blowing stuff will counter weigh. I want to do a gear connection between the wheels, I am still working on the gear sizes and other things.
p.s. I do plan to seal the electronics to keep the snow out. That is one reason for the compactness.

Looks like you're getting a very early start on the '08 snow game there, huh?

(I can't help myself)

[nparikh]

Originally Posted by Cartwright

It looks quite sturdy, but I question its maneuverability. If good turning is important, its seems like you'd need at least a bit of a rock in the middle wheels. The gaps at the corners seem like a bit of a hazard to the electronics. The design itself looks neat and powerful though.

Not necessarily. If you have sufficient force you can always brute force it and still have pretty good turning.

[robostangs548]

Looks pretty low, but overall nice job on the design. That is some incredible CAD work, and I am sure that it took you a long time. I think that it definitely paid off, and the outcome is tremendous. Great job!

[AdamHeard]

How are the plates going to be made?

Unless it's lasered/waterjetted/turret punched you can't put sharp corners on the inside of parts.

[GMAdan]

water jet if this idea ever turns into a real drive train