pic: FRC488 - Six Wheel Drive Chassis

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Rich Kressly

Who keeps letting him in? Security!!!

I love the simple approach to the 6-wheel drive. I'll be follwing up later if you use this to see what additional stiffening was used/needed. Good luck.

I took Dave's advice and added the fourth wall to the front and rear cross members as a start. Because these drivetrains are almost never operating absent some additional mechanism or superstructure, I try to incorporate those future additions into the design and allow for them to be used as support for the drive in the same way that the drive supports the mechanisms, if that makes sense. I try to design such that the finished robot appears organic -- not as if it was designed in pieces that were smashed together later.

Because of the holidays primarly, we haven't really done much of anything with our mecanum drive prototype. It still has no feedback system installed and remains difficult to drive. Most of the team agrees that, unless it appears to be a perfect solution for the new game, we'll stick with something more traditional like this drive, so there's a good chance you'll be seeing it somewhere.

[Andrew Blair]

Madison, I know that you have no broach capability, so I'm curious- where do you buy your #25 sprockets? I can't find any finished ones online, or in the Browning catalog.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Madison, I know that you have no broach capability, so I'm curious- where do you buy your #25 sprockets? I can't find any finished ones online, or in the Browning catalog.

For this, we'll be ordering from McMaster-Carr -- part no. 2737T123. 5/8" bore was the smallest I found with a keyway for this particular sprocket. I didn't take a comprehensive look at many teeth counts, though, so I'm not sure how consistent the keyways are in 5/8" bore sprockets -- but I can't imagine why they all don't have one.

[Andrew Blair]

Ah, I see. We were going to be using 1/2" bore, and for some reason, no one on earth carries broached 1/2" bore sprockets. Thanks though!