pic: FRC488 Completed Drive Train

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Ben Piecuch

Madison,

I like the simplicity and layout of your drivetrain. My question is, why are the front chains cantilevered so far inside? It seems to me that you could flip the gears 180 deg and move the chain out towards the rail, creating a slightly tighter package. Both of our #25 chain runs fit within an inch of the rails. Yours look to be hanging out much further than that. Overall, a great looking and performing drivetrain. Thanks,

Bengineer

The back chains run from the Dewalt to 24 tooth sprockets on each wheel. The front chains are running around 18 tooth sprockets for no reason in particular.

On the middle axle, the hub diameter on the 24 tooth sprocket approaches the outer diameter of the 18 tooth sprockets -- so we had to turn them around to allow clearance for the chain. We could've ordered more 24 tooth sprockets, but I have about two dozen extra 18 tooth sprockets lying around from past projects, so we used those for convenience. As is typical of our robots, there's really nothing else down there, so they're not in the way of anything -- but they're also really easy to change if it becomes necessary.