New Vex Mecanum

[idahorobot]

Has anybody tested the new 2015 Vex six inch mecanum wheels?

How well are they doing?

[FrankJ]

We are building chassis this weekend. I expect the new wheels to perform about the same as the old ones. Durability is the issue. Time will tell on that.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by idahorobot

Has anybody tested the new 2015 Vex six inch mecanum wheels?

Yes. Vex tested them:

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

We have tested the new ones until we wore the rubber off the rollers, no more broken tabs.

If you have any concerns, please contact me at prosupport@vex.com and I'll talk you through what we did to make them better, and how they'll work awesome for your design.

[Foster]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ether again.

I swear Ether is one of the few people that searches posts for an answer before he posts. Thanks Ether for setting a good example!

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by Foster

I swear Ether is one of the few people that searches posts for an answer before he posts. Thanks Ether for setting a good example!

Not only that but he is scary fast at it too...

[asid61]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Not only that but he is scary fast at it too...

Nah, I'm pretty sure he just memorizes everything on the boards.

[idahorobot]

Any new Vex reports after another week of trial?

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by idahorobot

Any new Vex reports after another week of trial?

We have been driving for almost 2 weeks now and we have no broken rollers. We even accidentally ran into a wall at full speed. Bent frame but no broken rollers.

[Grant Cox]

Originally Posted by idahorobot

Any new Vex reports after another week of trial?

A time-lapse video of the new 6" Mecanum Wheel Recycle Rush test is now up on the VEX YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwbjCPZ958

Test conditions:

• Chassis: 2013 Drive in a Day with custom upper structure to hold weight
• Weight: 118 lb (barbells)
• Field: "Regulation" Recycle Rush practice field. Scoring platforms made out of plywood and covered with HDPE.
• Duration: 4+ hours (excluding battery changes, motor cooldown, etc).

We were pleased with the results. Tl;dw version: no broken rollers, just some worn rubber.

[XaulZan11]

[quote=Grant Cox;1437686]A time-lapse video of the new 6" Mecanum Wheel Recycle Rush test is now up on the VEX YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLwbjCPZ958
QUOTE]

How does this compare to the tests done last year? Or, did last year's wheels break under similar tests?

[idahorobot]

Thanks, great video.

We went with the Vex wheels so we could get on with our build several weeks ago. At the time Andymark was out of stock. Given the response from Vex and I gambled on their wheels.

Looks like the redesign is working well! On less thing to worry about.

We are just about complete and should be able to run our bot soon.

[Dale]

We've been doing a lot of fancy software development on our little Nanotube-based test robot while the competition robot is being built. We did have one roller break at the base where it interlocks with the hub. That was after maybe three hours drive time. We're hoping this is just an isolated case. This robot is about half the weight of an FRC robot and wasn't doing anything crazy at the time. It was no big deal to repair but we don't want to make a habit of it.

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by Dale

We've been doing a lot of fancy software development on our little Nanotube-based test robot while the competition robot is being built. We did have one roller break at the base where it interlocks with the hub. That was after maybe three hours drive time. We're hoping this is just an isolated case. This robot is about half the weight of an FRC robot and wasn't doing anything crazy at the time. It was no big deal to repair but we don't want to make a habit of it.

Were they the new 2015 wheels?

[CalTran]

For that VEXpro video, I thought that the regulation scoring platforms were 16 degrees and 2 inches high, not 4 inches?

Originally Posted by 2.1.3 Scoring Platform

Each SCORING PLATFORM is 1 ft. 8 in. wide, 2 in. tall, and 15 ft. 7 in. long.

[Grant Cox]

Originally Posted by CalTran

For that VEXpro video, I thought that the regulation scoring platforms were 16 degrees and 2 inches high, not 4 inches?

Oops. Uh.... chute door?

(Thanks for pointing that out. The field was correct, the video descriptions were not.)

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

How does this compare to the tests done last year? Or, did last year's wheels break under similar tests?

We haven't done any tests with pre-2015 rollers on a Recycle Rush field, but recommend making the switch if you still have any kicking around. The "break these" tests that Aren described above were for the 4" and 6" wheels with new rollers. This test was essentially a refined version of those, on a realistic field, with a camera rolling.