pic: 461's Drive Pod 2.6.2008

[Nikhil Bajaj]

Originally Posted by 1075guy

The pod itself looks alot like 1075's in size and shape, but ours have a track instead of wheels, and our motors, gears, and shifting transmission are all housed inside the unit. 4 pins with clips and an electrical connector and a unit can be replaced with a spare.

What do you mean by "housed inside the unit"?

[Racer26]

Essentially instead of driving the tracks drive wheels externally, the drive hub (two 'wheels' on either end of the units support the tracks [tracks made by brecoflex]). The driven 'wheel' is cut in half along its circumference, and a sprocket mounted inside it. This sprocket is driven by a custom chain (no joining link) to a smaller sprocket, which is mounted to a bevel gear. the other bevel gear is mounted to the output shaft of the transmission, and the input shaft of the transmission runs along the long axis of the unit. the input shaft is driven by two CIM's per side, mounted below the mainline shaft, connected by short chains. if you think of the track itself as being an oval, the wheels that drive it, the transmission, and the motors are all inside the oval, and only 4 pins actually interface with the main chassis of our robot, so changing out a broken drive doesnt involve replacing gears on motors, or any of that stuff, we just build spares, ship em with the robot, and an entirely new drivetrain could be put on in just minutes.