pic: Team 1388: Secret Weapon

[Mike Hendricks]

Originally Posted by Denman

not sure if it quite matches the dominate switch
i'm not quite sure what it does now... it looks like the leverage is a bit little... but i'm not really sure

All it does, is keep that gear from backdriving, which keeps us from having to keep the FP motor at a stall. Simply move the motor up, and the servo locks in the "up" position. The shaft with the gear on it, is threaded at the end and has a jam nut on it which the ratchet fits over. The ratchet is bolted to the frame using a piece of 1x1 tubing and some grade 8 bolts.

When you want to lower the arm, pull the stick down. The program sends a small pulse to the FP motor to raise it up (since you cant change directons on a ratchet under load). The servo then puts the shaft into neutral and allows the arm to be lowered. When you let go of the stick, the servo shifts back into the up posititon, making it ready for the next lift.

As for the dominate switch .. heh. This is actually useful

We're predicting judges/field officals at the events telling us we left a tool on the bot before the match starts, one thing is for sure .. it isnt coming off any time soon.