Banebots Wheels

[Jay O'Donnell]

Hey CD,
I'm working on some robot designs and was wondering if anyone knew much about banebots wheels (the small green, blue, and orange ones). My team used the green ones for our ground intake this year. My interest is in the differences between the differently colored wheels and how they act differently towards game pieces. I know that green is softer than orange is softer than blue, but I don't know how that correlates to interacting with past game pieces (frisbees/basketballs/inner tubes especially). Any info that anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated!

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by Jay Money 1058

Hey CD,
I'm working on some robot designs and was wondering if anyone knew much about banebots wheels (the small green, blue, and orange ones). My team used the green ones for our ground intake this year. My interest is in the differences between the differently colored wheels and how they act differently towards game pieces. I know that green is softer than orange is softer than blue, but I don't know how that correlates to interacting with past game pieces (frisbees/basketballs/inner tubes especially). Any info that anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated!

In general, the softer wheels grip game pieces better but wear faster.

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by z_beeblebrox

In general, the softer wheels grip game pieces better but wear faster.

Do you (or anyone else) know how it affects frisbees from a shooting standpoint?

[BrendanB]

Jay it depends on how much compression you put on the frisbee.

We've used the blue ones all season and have gone through a ton of wheels. We have an extremely high amount of wear on our first of three shooter wheels. Before IRI we tried switching the first set of wheels to the softer orange ones hoping they would wear down slower but the compression we put on the disc was so high it wore down faster so we stuck with the blue ones. We change the first set of wheels once every 5 matches and before elims.

I know most teams use the green and orange ones for manipulators (rollers and claws) in the past but I don't think its much of a difference in some applications.

[IndySam]

We used mostly blue to manipulate the game pieces.

We started using three inch wheels for our shooter and the orange ones tore up quickly so we switched to blue. This significantly reduced wear but we were still replacing them every 6 matches.

After watching several other teams we switched to four inch orange wheels and were able to substantially reduce compression and were still shooting harder than our previous setup with significant reduction in wear.

Obviously the increase in wheel speed was a huge factor.

[sanddrag]

We originally used a blue Banebots wheel for the shooter and wore it out almost immediately. Switched to a harder blue rubber wheel from McMaster which lasted for the season, but did wear on each shot and by IRI, needed to be replaced. Switched to blue urethane from McMaster, and haven't had a problem since. Grips much better.

[BobbyVanNess]

We used green 2 3/8" banebots wheels on our intake rollers this year. They worked incredibly well, but wore fairly quickly. We replaced them at the start of every competition, and they'd usually last until the end. On our practice bot, we had several of them actually wear down to the plastic. I cant say how the different hardnesses affect grip or wear though. We were thinking of replacing the green wheels with the harder blue ones, hoping they'll still grip, and last a lot longer (for demos/exhibits etc).

Anyone know how grip on discs differs across the grip colors?

[evanperryg]

On a recent thread somewhere about 67's shooter, they said the blue wheels caused the disc to curve much more as it flew through the air, don't remember what they said about green(if anything). My team used a pneumatic wheel, which worked extremely well. It widens at the high RPM, resulting in more compression on the disc but not any more compression that would damage the wheel.

[O'Sancheski]

229/4124 used 4 7/8" orange banebot wheels this year and we were very pleased with them. They grip quite well (barring the right compression) and shoot the discs very accurately. Like the posts above, they do wear very quickly. On a good day we would get about 4 matches before we did our typical rotation. We went to three competitions and probably changed about 25 wheels through this season. If you are looking for something for the offseason with only one or two competitions I would highly recommend them. If you are planning on doing any more than two, I would suggest investing in some urethane or marshmallow wheels.

[jwallace15]

I wasn't in a manipulator group so don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure we were considering using Banebots wheels for our old 30 point climber. I remember seeing them sitting askew around the CAD room. But I think we ended up deciding on using these instead.

However we didn't end up using our 30 point climber as it proved to be too complicated.

[Cash4587]

I can tell you this, the blue urethane wheels from mcmaster (or the canadian wheels as we call them) are a better option. They have zero wear over time and have just as much, if not more grip than the bane bots wheels as far as shooter application in 2013. As far as application to other game pieces, I have no idea how bane bots wheels would work. If you can, I would try out some urethane wheels from mcmaster it seems as though a lot of teams are picking up on them and they are becoming very popular.