pic: Exploding Bacon's Spamthingamicon! (Octocanum)

[Andrew Remmers]

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[Hawiian Cadder]

that is an absolutely incredible cad job. I'm curious what software you use and how long all those renders took.

[Ankit S.]

Oh. My. Goodness. I don't think there is a word in any language that can describe this CAD model...

How long did it take?

[Thermal]

You may want to consider swapping which wheel you have articulate. If I understand these pictures correctly, right now you have your traction wheels on the jump drive, which means if you take a lateral hit while in traction mode you risk trashing your modules.

[lemiant]

AMAZING!!!

Why did you choose to go with lightened sheet instead of thinner, non-holed stock?

[Andrew Remmers]

Originally Posted by lemiant

AMAZING!!!

Why did you choose to go with lightened sheet instead of thinner, non-holed stock?

From what I understand our sponsors have ALOT of .125 sheet laying all the time so I designed accordingly. We don't want to have special orders made for us when he cuts and bends everything completely free already! (even if a sheet of AL isn't really THAT crazy expensive)

- Andrew

[Andrew Remmers]

First off Thanks for the awesome comments!!!

that is an absolutely incredible cad job. I'm curious what software you use and how long all those renders took.

I used Autodesk Inventor 2011 for this model and this was my very first sheet metal drive train. I rendered it in Autodesk Showcase and since I didn't really know what I was doing when I made these renders they are actually VERY low quality! They only took about a minute or so to make!

Oh. My. Goodness. I don't think there is a word in any language that can describe this CAD model...

How long did it take?

The entire model since it was my first drive train ever took about a month total with something like 3-4 Iterations However it could have taken a much less time but I was pretty busy during that time so it was very much neglected for a while.

You may want to consider swapping which wheel you have articulate. If I understand these pictures correctly, right now you have your traction wheels on the jump drive, which means if you take a lateral hit while in traction mode you risk trashing your modules.

Yes they do tilt on the mecanum shafts, and if we were going to actually build this now It would be updated a ton! However I really like my choice of the Cylinders! They are purdy and actually really light compared to the other ones I was going to get!

- Andrew

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Thermal

You may want to consider swapping which wheel you have articulate. If I understand these pictures correctly, right now you have your traction wheels on the jump drive, which means if you take a lateral hit while in traction mode you risk trashing your modules.

That was a lesson 148 learned in 2010. Our 2011 pre-season prototype and our 2011 robot had stationary traction wheels -- MUCH tougher.

-John

[RogerR]

any relation to the original spamthingacon?

[Andrew Remmers]

Originally Posted by RogerR

any relation to the original spamthingacon?

Yes, It was brought up to me by a few mentors who were involved the in the original design process. I figured I'd take the challenge and make one early build season 2010 (of course after build season was when I started cadding)
I had quite a while to doodle around and I found what would be a pretty neat system I thought. It took me a while to get a handle of the tools in Inventor since I had no idea what I was doing! My mentors Dan and Andrew sorta supervised me as I designed it and would give pointers at meetings something like every two weeks. We also designed for use of the old control systems since we had a ton of those just laying around collecting dust, I figured I might as well put them to work! (answering Nick's Comment )

Again thank you for the awesome comments! Maybe I should go redesign it one of these days!

[Nick Lawrence]

I dig the IFI control system.

Wonderful job, that's beautiful.

-Nick

[Madison]

Originally Posted by JVN

That was a lesson 148 learned in 2010. Our 2011 pre-season prototype and our 2011 robot had stationary traction wheels -- MUCH tougher.

-John

I'm in the midst of a long vacation from my team, so I haven't had a chance to look at our robot closely since competition, but I don't recall anything seeming worse for wear as a result of lowering the traction wheels instead of the mecanum wheels. What sorts of failure/problems did y'all experience?

I liked the drive enough that I'm willing to optimize it and see what we can do to make it part of our standard toolbox. I'm interested in reading others' experiences with similar drives.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Madison

I'm in the midst of a long vacation from my team, so I haven't had a chance to look at our robot closely since competition, but I don't recall anything seeming worse for wear as a result of lowering the traction wheels instead of the mecanum wheels. What sorts of failure/problems did y'all experience?

I liked the drive enough that I'm willing to optimize it and see what we can do to make it part of our standard toolbox. I'm interested in reading others' experiences with similar drives.

Have you posted a "review" of this style of drive anywhere? If not would you please consider doing so such that those of us who are considering investing the time in research don't have to start from scratch?

My main questions:

How often did you use the mecanum wheels?
The traction wheels?
How often did you use the omni-directional capabilities?
Do you feel that the added cost (complexity, time, money) was warranted given the benefits? Why?


Sorry for asking you to do all this but I'm genuinely curious how this type of hybrid drive worked out for teams this year.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Have you posted a "review" of this style of drive anywhere? If not would you please consider doing so such that those of us who are considering investing the time in research don't have to start from scratch?

My main questions:

How often did you use the mecanum wheels?
The traction wheels?
How often did you use the omni-directional capabilities?
Do you feel that the added cost (complexity, time, money) was warranted given the benefits? Why?


Sorry for asking you to do all this but I'm genuinely curious how this type of hybrid drive worked out for teams this year.

I have been meaning to post something about our experiences, but haven't had time to really get my thoughts written down and organized.

The short version, which'll have to hold people over for a bit, is, "Holy crap, this is amazing."

[Nathan Pell]

I just love the fact you still used the name "Spamthingacon"

Spam + Swamp Thing + Team Emticons...


Sweet!