Truly omnidirectional omniwheels?

[chrisinmd]

Originally Posted by Exotria

I don't know about your team, but our motors use an autolocking system so that it's harder for us to be pushed. Thus, whenever a motor isn't receiving instructions, it locks itself up, so if certain motors are moving(say, two matching sides in a hex drivetrain design) while others aren't, the wheels wouldn't be rolling to go along with the miniwheels. Omniwheels wouldn't be very omni in that situation. And that's the point of my idea.

Are you talking about the brake/coast jumpers on the victors? You can set the jumpers on the speed controllers to short the motors with a neutral command (127), this causes them to brake. You can also set them to coast on neutral, which lets the motors free spin. The jumper block is right below the PWM cable port on the victor.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Exotria

I've looked at omniwheels a lot lately(brainstorming for next season and all), and I can't help but notice that if you need to move an omniwheel diagonally, it wouldn't work too well. Is this true?

No, it is not true.

Omniwheels move diagonally just as easily as they move forward. Perhaps more easily, since the motor doesn't need to be turning as quickly. They are called omniwheels because they indeed move omnidirectionally.

[Mr. Freeman]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

No, it is not true.

Omniwheels move diagonally just as easily as they move forward. Perhaps more easily, since the motor doesn't need to be turning as quickly. They are called omniwheels because they indeed move omnidirectionally.

I originally thought the same thing but I think he means that they wouldn't move if the driveshaft isn't rotating.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Mr. Freeman

...I think he means that they wouldn't move if the driveshaft isn't rotating.

That's true of any wheel, so I don't really think it's a valid concern about omniwheels in particular.

[Exotria]

You can't have the full wheel rotation coupled with the roller rotation to move omnidirectionally if the full wheel can't roll. That's the point there.