pic: Team 2791 Coming Together

[sdcantrell56]

This looks like the start to a quite successful robot. It looks very similar albeit different material to our still virtual drivetrain. Couple questions...How thick is the aluminum? Given the scalloping along the bottom why did you not use smaller wheels?

Overall though this looks great!

[Chris is me]

Thanks!

The aluminum plates are 3/16".

We went with 6 inch wheels and scalloping just for extra security with bump clearance. Some people on the team wanted to use the 2008 KoP wheels due to budgeting concerns, so using 6 inch wheels would have been cheapest too. Now that we're using 6 Plactions, it's not cheapest, but it still works. I'm guessing based on the question you guys are using smaller wheels?

[sdcantrell56]

Yup we are actually going with 4.5" wheels with the scalloped chassis as well. We went the custom route though on wheels so the cost wasnt a problem.

Did you think about direct driving one of the wheels instead of chaining all of them as well?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

Yup we are actually going with 4.5" wheels with the scalloped chassis as well. We went the custom route though on wheels so the cost wasnt a problem.

Did you think about direct driving one of the wheels instead of chaining all of them as well?

Thought about it, but the 8 wheels would make the gearboxes off center, making CoG a little harder to balance. Plus we're using dead axles (east coast drive).

[sdcantrell56]

Haha I love the east coast drive reference. We're doing dead axles too and wood frame again....Maybe that would be the down south drive.

[GaryVoshol]

Make sure that the kicker is well-filed so it doesn't harm the balls.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Make sure that the kicker is well-filed so it doesn't harm the balls.

Thanks. Right now the angle piece has a very rounded edge, though the corners will be filed a bit more. I think we'll be playing with various slopes and wedges on it in the (dramatically shortened) tweaking part of our build.

[Akash Rastogi]

Chris I finally realized which aspects of old MORT bots this looks like

[rsisk]

Chris,

What are the holes on the front of the kicker arms for?

[Chris is me]

I think the holes are left over from drilling at a slightly lower / crooked spot. Not exactly elegant, but it kinda sorta looks like weight reduction to me! Though now we're down to one mast instead of 2.