Help needed with team cart ideas!!

[JBotAlan]

Originally Posted by EricH

What? No mention of the tow vehicle? Or did that give up the ghost?

Oh. The officials at Atlanta call it (the battery-operated truck, for those who aren't familiar with it) an unapproved vehicle, and it has to be parked in our pit at all times to qualify as the cart...so...

Too bad I never got to see it used. We had it out for a little bit at Waterloo, but nowhere else. I've thought more than once that a motorized cart would be nice, but I'm no mechanical guy...

JBot

[Wayne C.]

crash proof?

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Wayne C.

crash proof?

Yes, having a cart that can withstand speeds of 70MPH and can handle the New Jersey Turnpike would be a very good idea...

[Chief Pride]

Originally Posted by Alexa Stott

Yes, having a cart that can withstand speeds of 70MPH and can handle the New Jersey Turnpike would be a very good idea...

i think thats solved quite easily.... just stick it in one of these:

http://www.hakatours.com/images/Zorb...le%20Hydro.jpg

i love those things....

[eshteyn]

we put a drive system on our carts, including seat belts for the driver, a comfortable bucket seat and probably going to make a trailer for transporting fellow team members

[bhsrobotics1671]

and no one has any picturesss?
common' people!

our team is trying to build a cart right now, and one of our main problems is trying to figure out a mechanism that will raise the robot. We are really interested in scissor lifts but dont know where to start.

any help would be great!
thanks

[Booksy]

After living without a cart last year, we are definitely building one. Carrying that thing SUCKED.(No one on our team had ever been to a regional, so no one new how important that was).
Oh well, good memories, and a lesson learned (laughing at that is always fun).

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by eshteyn

we put a drive system on our carts, including seat belts for the driver, a comfortable bucket seat and probably going to make a trailer for transporting fellow team members

Haha, I think remember seeing yours at Buckeye last year. Pretty sweet.

Anyway, because our budget was pretty low, I couldn't do too much on our cart as far as functionality went. So instead, I went with the pretty route.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/30165
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/30189

It was motorized using the base of 2007's bot, had about 8-10 of those cathodes (all from previous years), and topped off with a nice yellow-and-black striped paint job. I wanted a few more things on there that actually mattered, like a lift, built-in toolboxes, etc. But, again, finances prohibited that.

I'm sad now, because I don't even live in that area anymore, so I'll never see my creation again.

Anyway, go for functionality. It's much more important than the extra bling, although that's usually nice to throw in if you plan on using it at demos, off-season, and the likes.

[Cow Bell Solo]

We are currently working on our robot cart this year with a lift mechanism in it. I will upload pictures upon completion, which is hopefully soon(week or two I hope) to do some text pictures i will show you

in a storing position it is like so

_______
/ /
/_______/

but alot flatter, flat enough that we can push it underneith the robot, but then it folds upright rising the robot.

________
| |
| |
|_______|

motorized of course(lift)

this is what we firgured to work best to access most areas on the robot.

[AndyB]

http://www.cartsandwagons.com/wagons...Flatbed_Ca rt

We use something like that. Except ours is about 28" wide and 42" long. Not entirely sure where we got them though. They have an expanded metal flatbed base that you could easily mount things to, to add your own customized touch to it.

[robostangs548]

Here is some pics of our cart from this year... It was pretty fun to build, and really got our team noticed and everyone in the city was like, "oh yeah, your that team with that cart!" so it was pretty sweet for demos and stuff...

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/31254
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/31247

Big thing to remember is how you are going to power everything, we used a Hybrid Battery out of a new Tahoe, but you may want to find something of the sort, because power is an important issue if you are on the move.

[Roger]

AndyB: We got one similar to the one you linked at a Home Depot when we went to the Championships in Atlanta a couple of years ago. Found it 10 minutes before the store was shut, and the lights were being shut off . Otherwise we'd of had to carry the robot from pit to field.

It's a very good robot cart base, 28" wide x 48" length, and good tires for the bumps, and the HD version had removable sides to prop the robot up a little higher. We end up bringing our "art cart" cart instead which - every year - the robot doesn't quite sit on properly.

I'm trying to get the manufacturing crew to build on the HD cart a scissors lift and battery/tool shelves under (even drew up some ideas for them), but they are very slow to start on it. Maybe a couple days before we go to our first regional next year?

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by robostangs548

Here is some pics of our cart from this year... It was pretty fun to build, and really got our team noticed and everyone in the city was like, "oh yeah, your that team with that cart!" so it was pretty sweet for demos and stuff...

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/31254
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/31247

Big thing to remember is how you are going to power everything, we used a Hybrid Battery out of a new Tahoe, but you may want to find something of the sort, because power is an important issue if you are on the move.

I'm still in amazed at that cart. It's so...... awesome.

[qwertyuiop[]\]

buy an ichair and base it off of that



take your robot up stairs????

[IKE]

Ours is very simple. The frame is made of Star Bar. We have 6" poly-uretahne wheels. It used to be painted yellow, but the kids did a nice job refinishing it last year. We printed out a large logo on paper and put that under polycarb as the upper surface. This looks really good from the stands. We also added two cross bars about 6 inches off of the surface to boost the robot up (replacing wood blocks).

I would recommend not getting too carried away with the cart. Remeber 1 multi-time National Champion (3 I believe) as well as several time Regional Chairmans winner uses a simple furniture Dolly. They put most of their resources into build a good Bot AND a good team. I am all for fancy carts, but not at the expense of something more important.

The light Idea for working during dark times is a great idea. I remember a couple of almost national champions last year searching for Light at Atlanta while the speeches were being given.