pic: 1493 Drive Train 1

[Andy Baker]

OK, before everyone piles on here, I need to say a few things. Cory, Wayne, Mike, David; I greatly appreciate your support.

It is week 5, going on week 6. We are all working on no sleep. These guys are excited about their design and have said some things without knowing the background of what has happened during the past few years. It seems that they have no clue about "sharing designs" and what has been happening in the FIRST community.

It seems that these guys just need a bit of education. I'll do the honors:

Waaay back in the 2000 build season, Joe Johnson posted a print on this website of a single part that would improve the Bosch gearbox. This sharing got me thinking: "we have a pretty good motor mount/2-speed shifter - teams would like to see this design and use it". This Gear switching and motor mount design white paper is listed here. Notice the # of downloads this received (almost 150k). While this was not the first shifting gearbox in FIRST, but it was the first time that 90% of the teams discovered how to do this. I like to think that this design is the grandfather to many good designs used in FIRST, from shift-on-the-fly transmissions to the Nothing but Dewalts design. Ah, but I digress...

We had so much fun giving away that design, that in 2001, we produced the Dual motor shifting gearbox whitepaper, and people seemed to like that too. During that year, we also gave away some silly software that helped teams auto-balance the bridge. Some of those teams put their own twist on that software and even won awards... it was all good.

In 2002, we really came up with a doozy... a 6 motor, dual speed, shift-on-the-fly transmission. This was such a hit that other teams started posting their designs. Dave Lavery did this, Andy Brockway also, and teams 217, 222, and 226. It was a good thing. People were learning left and right. 14-year olds knew what a pitch diameter is... cool stuff.

In 2003, we went crazy. This foolish "sharing of designs" was an epidemic. People would post their CAD pictures on this site and get critiqued right and left. We posted two designs that year this gearbox and (drum roll please)... The TechnoKat Trick Wheel. Keep in mind that this was in 2003. In FIRST, these sorts of omni-wheels were used as far back as 1998, when we had one on our robot, and 67 had one on theirs. Others might have had them also, but I don't know, since I am just "this guy" who does not know what he is talking about. Between the years of 99-03, many teams used variations of these omni-wheels. We just (finally) decided to post prints of them after the 2003 season.

Of course, any silly engineer would know that these "trick wheels" are not patentable.

Oh... and also in 2003, I was fortunate to win an award for this sharing of designs. That was awesomely cool.

On a note about the 2003 year and the gearbox design, check out this thread, and especially take note of the first post on the second page of this thread. I specifically point out "... Better yet, improve upon the design and post your findings". Using someone else's designs and improving on them is a GOOD THING, and it is expected.

Now... getting to modern day (whew - that took a while): Mark and I decided to start this venture of AndyMark. We decided to post our CAD pics. Believe it or not, we expected teams to download our files and create these things themselves, in some cases. Heck, I even mention that here. So... the idea of using these designs and thinking that you have pulled a good one on us is not that novel. This is OK!

So, with all of this said, I have two comments Dan and go48:
1. sweet wheels!
2. please send your fabricator's contact info to me, as I would like to have them give me a quote on making parts ($15 is a good value)

Some guy,
Andy B.

(sorry for being so long winded)