21-12-2006 22:44

Ben Piecuch

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

Well, while you didn't ask us to "tear it apart" in this picture, I'll do it anyways.

We found that the VEX chain stretches quite a bit over time. I would recommend putting the chain on the end of your shafts for two reasons.
1) A slack chain will probably run against the balls. Not sure if that'll affect the operation of your hopper.
2) Having the tension in the middle of your shaft will cause the shaft to bend a little easier. We had a hard time keeping our spans narrow (especially with the size of the softballs.) We've noticed that the shafts are bending quite a bit, and aren't really straight anymore. So much for 1/8" steel shaft...

It looks good overall. If you can make it two balls wide, I think you'd be better off. Our base is similarly sized, as 12" wide by 15" long. It turns just fine with 4wd. However, with the size of the big ball, you have to watch out for being tipped from the side by it. We almost took a couple tumbles in some pushing matches to get the atlas ball...

Good luck!

BEN

21-12-2006 22:55

Lil' Lavery

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

I'm assuming it's a hopper that will pick up balls and then be elevated to the level of the goal and spit them back out (ala many FRC teams in 2000 and 2002).

You may want to make it wider, we've found many times in both FRC and FVC that have margin of error when picking up balls really helps (and additional storage space).

21-12-2006 22:57

Alex Cormier

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

It is just somethings i am working on at home during sesmester breaks.

I will bring the idea to the students and i'll have them make some concepts on paper before i show them those designs and we will use a little bit form both deisgns to make one robot. so what you see here is not final or even close to it. It's just playing around and see what works and what doesn't.

thanks for the advice, i'll take it into account with the next modifications.

21-12-2006 23:23

fredliu168

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

this is similar to 1114's design for ball pickup

21-12-2006 23:35

lukevanoort

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

It looks simple and effective, however, I'm still waiting for an FVC robot with a design based on CD in 2000. (Hmmm, VexLabs swerve drive modules are sold in pairs, interesting)

21-12-2006 23:43

Ben Piecuch

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

22-12-2006 11:36

colin340

Re: pic: Alex Cormier's Vex Teaser

maybe you could use compressor dampeners on the stand offs