13-11-2016 22:48

nuclearnerd

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

That's really neat, and a good way to compact the winch (the motor is inside the winch drum, instead of beside it). I'm still really wary of loading the CIM structurally, but more and more teams seem to be experimenting with the idea.

13-11-2016 23:28

GeeTwo

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

I can't seem to make sense of the picture and the text at the same time.

Is that thing which looks like a 2.5" shaft collar really a rotating bearing?

Is the CIM mounted to the chassis, or is the end of the gearbox shaft?

If the shaft, do you have slip rings, or just enough slack to take up the number of turns the drum will make, and how do you support the other (CIM end) of the drum?

If the CIM, how is it mounted to the chassis which still allows the drum to turn?

13-11-2016 23:41

nuclearnerd

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

I agree the photo and text aren't perfectly clear. Here's my understanding: The winch drum (not shown) surrounds the motor and gearbox, supported on the left by the black bushing (which fits snugly over the CIM), and on the right by the versaplanetary shaft. The whole thing mounts using the silver shaft collar and maybe? another bearing on the versaplanetary shaft?

A photo of the full assembly would be helpful

14-11-2016 00:38

Bryce2471

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

I think you are correct. I like the idea, in concept, but in practice it seems like a heavy way gain a minimal amount of space.

14-11-2016 07:01

MrBasse

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Quite a few low bar bots had weight to spare and had space at a premium. We did something similar with our ball collector for aerial assist, made some good confusion faces happen when people tried to figure out how it worked. Wish I would have taken a closer look at this one this year.

14-11-2016 12:03

RoboChair

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Average job good sirs

14-11-2016 12:07

1493kd

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

This is very interesting would you happen to have any close up video of it in action?

14-11-2016 15:38

Mike Marandola

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Here are a few decent photos I took at Worlds.

14-11-2016 16:20

Eric Scheuing

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Very clever! Might have to remember this if we need to winch anything this year.

15-11-2016 03:01

Jean Tenca

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Very cool. I'm curious, is there anything special with the wiring for this? How do you accommodate the motor rotating so many times? I've seen a few robots do motors in rollers in the past, but I've always been unsure as to how exactly they wire them.

15-11-2016 07:00

Ari423

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Richard can correct me if I'm wrong, but from Mike's picture it looks like the CIM is mounted and the spool rotates around the CIM. Not shown in the original picture is a large gear that fits on the end of the VP and bolts to the side of the spool and spins it. If this is right, then there is no need to worry about the CIM wires rotating.

15-11-2016 07:55

NoshBrooks

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

The Winch functioned as you all have guessed, although, we did end up using a half inch ratcheting wrench to prevent the system from reversing after endgame.

In all honesty we don't have the best climber, it was fairly slow and usually made more sense to just score 2 balls and take the tower. Nice to have it working though. We saw some other teams like 4967 do something similar to our method, not sure how well it worked, never got to see it in a match!

It was mounted on 2 brackets riveted to the belly-pan.

15-11-2016 07:56

NoshBrooks

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

[quote=NoshBrooks;1616372]The Winch functioned as you all have guessed, although, we did end up using a half inch ratcheting wrench to prevent the system from reversing after endgame.

In all honesty we don't have the best climber, it was fairly slow and usually made more sense to just score 2 balls and take the tower. Nice to have it working though. We saw some other teams like 4967 do something similar to our method, not sure how well it worked, never got to see it in a match!

It was mounted on 2 brackets riveted to the belly-pan. The sheath spun around the sim and the sim was hard mounted to the frame.

17-11-2016 13:36

JesseK

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

o.O

The pictures of the full assembly are the closest to "magic" I have seen in FRC in a long time. Very cool design.

17-11-2016 19:21

Richard Wallace

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

Thank you, and thanks to all who joined this discussion.

I apologize for my cryptic description. Had meant to add a picture or sketch of the complete assembly, but I have been traveling on business this week and don't have access to team drawings from here.

The comment that this winch design is not very weight-efficient is correct; the observation that low bar robots like ours typically had weight to spare this year also applies to 3620. This winch worked for us because it fit in the space we had available, and put the weight where it helped us. We also thought it was cool to hide the CIM inside the drum and use its body as a spindle. As Noah said, our climber was not very fast. It helped in a few situations, but often we were more productive shooting in the final seconds. However, you cannot beat scaling for wow factor. Our triple at IRI with HOT and HYPE will live in my memory forever.

17-11-2016 22:34

cadandcookies

Re: pic: Average Winch Innards

This is extremely true. I know of a number of bots that competed <100 lbs. Heck, Perses (the 'Snow Problem Ri3D) was around 70 without the battery. Probably the last time we'll see a game where space is at more of a premium than weight for a while.