20-08-2006 21:03

sanddrag

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

Sorry to be slightly off topic, but my question does relate to something in the picture. Were those welds done with a MIG or a TIG? If they were done with a MIG, what are the specs on the machine and how does it work out for you?

And yes, nice transmission.

20-08-2006 21:06

Josh Murphy

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

Nice transmission. How did it work out for you guys?

20-08-2006 21:54

Kim Masi

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

It was decent until during one of our matches at the Philly regional a gear shattered on the inside of the box. that was not fun.

20-08-2006 22:02

Greg Marra

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

I may be mistaken, but I do not believe a gear shattered. My understanding was that the drive shaft key sheared, and had to be welded in place. I later re-sheared it, and sheared the other one while practicing for the 2006 season...

20-08-2006 22:07

Dan Petrovic

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

It looks like it's an attachment onto the kit transmission.

Did you do this to get a two-speed transmission with half of it already designed for you?

21-08-2006 02:49

Alekat

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

My understanding was that a MIG welder would get too hot for aluminum.

21-08-2006 03:43

sanddrag

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

Not really. Aluminum can be MIG welded down to 14 gauge.

21-08-2006 08:15

Peter Matteson

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

I'll try and answer as much as possible.

We TIG EVERYTHING in the 177 shop. We have Miller Electric machines that UTC Power, sponser I for, donated when we down sized our factory space a few years back. The person who does most of our welding is one of the our recieving inspectors who used to weld pipe and tube in the shop. If you saw our robot this year that was all 1/16th wall box welded. We didn't pop a weld.

We used the output of the kitbot tranny as our low gear. After the UTC scrimmage we discovered that we needed a high speed. We utilized parts designs from our 2004 transmissions so we could save time and make the these in 2 days. Do to this I only had 2mm key to use to lock the drive shaft to the output gears. We knew this was the weak point but didn't want to weld everything in place in case we needed to service something. The failure Kim and Greg mentioned is the key shearing. This wouldn't have been an issue if we had had the correct key to begin with.

Pete

21-08-2006 14:28

Gabe

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

Can we see a simple diagram of the gearing itself? If the transmission is still around, perhaps you can take sideview picture to better see what you have here.

21-08-2006 15:31

MattB703

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

How much reduction do you have in your chain drive to the wheels? I'm a little surprised at your above comment because we have found the kit tranny to be a little too fast if anything.

Matt B.

21-08-2006 16:31

Lil' Lavery

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

Too fast? I found it to produce a decent speed with our rougly 2-3 reduction and 8" wheels, but I would have liked it to be faster (like 177).

21-08-2006 16:33

sanddrag

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

What size wheels were on this particular 177 2005 robot?

22-08-2006 07:47

Peter Matteson

Re: pic: Team 177 2005 Transmission

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/20426

Sorry, I don't remember off hand and it will be a few weeks before I have a chance to check it at the shop. Also I had that backwards in my earlier post. Looking at the 2nd picture it quite clearly was a low gear we added.

We had 6" wheels that year. No real reason for it other than we had a stockpile of pnuematics that we used to really like.