Pre-pandemic we bought a Greyt elevator kit (v2). The team hasn’t done an elevator since 2015, and after seeing how good the instructions are, I thought it would be a great educational assembly experience. Plus, we might end up using it sometime. We still have not assembled the kit, BTW - just haven’t been able to prioritize it.
Now we’re going into a season that may require lifting. My question is… If it turns out the game requires lifting, but robot starting height vs. goal height requirements lead to another stage being needed, what’s the best way to go after that? I like the look of Rev’s elevator bearing blocks (which I think used to be made by Competition Robot Parts)… Would it be reasonable to add a stage by incorporating some add-ons like that? I assume so, but not having designed or built one of these mechanisms before, I’m not 100% sure.
What’s the best way to be ready to add another stage to a 2-stage COTS elevator kit? thanks
Well. 1 solution may be an arm as you “3rd stage”. You have to get in and out of frame perimeter somehow, so this may be an option.
As another “hacky” solution, ive seen a team run a pneumatically lifted stage at the end.
Now…if that isn’t going to work, it’s probably going to me somewhat difficult to just “add” a stage to a COTS kit. To really do it right, you’ll have to lay it out in a CAD program. We are building a custom elevator with the Rev elevator bearing blocks, and they work well as slides. WCP also has some bearing blocks that likely will work very well. Andymark has a solution too (although the AM ones are very heavy by today’s standards). The hard part is getting the rigging right. It’s certainly doable though, if you lay it out carefully.
I think the TTB and Greyt elevators are great examples, but it’s going to take some design effort to just add another stage.
Looking closer at the elevator CAD, the cleanest way to be ready for having another stage is to determine all the Greyt parts needed to do so, create a CAD of it to make sure it all works, and then order the parts (though some are backordered currently, and they’re v3 instead of v2…). Maybe a project for the early mornings of Thanksgiving week - taking a little extra time off.
The new Rev ION stuff works super well in elevators, and may be worth looking at. That’s what we are making ours out of, and what the TTB elevator kit is made of (in the examples).
GreyT news, the GreyT cascade V4 will be launched around season and it supports 3+ stages!
Anyone with a V3 complete kit will be able to convert to V4 with just the V4 individual kit most likely. Unfortunately V2 doesn’t share bearing or cable componens.
Saw the final proto myself this morning and it’s pretty darn clean
