18-01-2017 22:34

Chris Fultz

Re: paper: Cyber Blue FRC 234 - Cantilevered Drive Design / Make

Last fall, Cyber Blue completed a design / make project for a cantilevered drive.

We had several goals for the project, including utilization of COTS products to minimize the customer matching and fabrication required. We felt this approach would be beneficial for teams with limited machine shop access.

We used a mix of products from West Coast Products, VEXPro and AndyMark.

This report summarizes our goals for the project, the approach taken, the results from tests, and provides some photos and CAD renders and a basic BOM.

18-01-2017 23:02

Conor Ryan

Re: paper: Cyber Blue FRC 234 - Cantilevered Drive Design / Make

Hey Chris, great white paper (again!)

Did you have any discussion or analysis about the reduced friction observed in Cantilevered Drives?

18-01-2017 23:09

Chris Fultz

Re: paper: Cyber Blue FRC 234 - Cantilevered Drive Design / Make

Not really. We are continuing to drive the robot, trying to get 30 - 45 minutes a night on it to be sure we really understand the design, our assembly, and how it will hold up. So far, all is good.

19-01-2017 06:34

Ari423

Re: paper: Cyber Blue FRC 234 - Cantilevered Drive Design / Make

How did you tension the drive chains? Usually teams use the WCP Cam as a tensioner for the VersaBlock Kit, but I didn't see that in your CAD model or BOM. If you didn't use a tensioner, how are the clamping VersaBlocks handling the loads of driving around? Are the sliding at all? We used VersaBlocks with WCP Cams last year and we still saw the VersaBlocks sliding (granted we were hitting the rock wall pretty hard with traction wheels).

Also did you mean for the bearing block part number to be 217-3432 instead of 217-3634? They certainly look more like VersaBlocks instead of Gearbox Bearing Blocks.

19-01-2017 07:19

Chris Fultz

Re: paper: Cyber Blue FRC 234 - Cantilevered Drive Design / Make

Yes, we have the wrong PN listed. They are the 3432 VersaBlocks.

We have the cams but have not installed them yet, we wanted to see how the blocks hold just from the mounting. So far they have not moved.

If we use this design for competition, we will use the cams.

19-01-2017 10:41

FrankJ

Re: paper: Cyber Blue FRC 234 - Cantilevered Drive Design / Make

Nice paper. We have found that with a competition weight robot, the bearing blocks will move unless fixed some how. Like with cams. The cam placement takes a little forethought on exactly where to place them to best use the adjustment range.