Does anyone have the dimensions for the charge station hinge? Andymark is sold out of them and they don’t appear to be difficult to replicate on a bridgeport. Even general measurements would work.
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Take a look at the field element drawings on the game & season resources page. Iirc, the length is 5.42 5.3 inches or something like that.
I just did look at tge files i was able to. I can’t open the step files with my phone to see if the dimensions are in there
They are 1"x1" and the linked holes are 5.3" apart. The length of them is is not all that critical (about 5") , you just need enough to screw them to the reset of the mechanism.
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Our team decided instead of recreating this hinge, to make a simple “Jacob’s ladder” style hinge to simulate the movement. two 2x6’s and some scrap rubber stapled to it seemed to work pretty well.
Having just made a set of these from solid steel on a knee mill, I think it might be worth substituting solid aluminum or thick-wall steel tubing for the center two pieces of the hinges – the ones made from thick bar stock. I think I spent about four hours total making the four hinge assemblies necessary for a full-width charge station, and that was using thinner bar stock (1" x 1" and 1/4" x 1" vs. official 1" x 1-1/2" and 1" x 3/8") than is depicted in the AndyMark and FIRST-official drawings.
Also, sheet 6 of the team version of the charge station calls for the bottom part of the AndyMark/official hinge to be screwed only into the endgrain of a 2x4 (part 16, TE-23316), which is not optimal. If you make the center bars of the hinges 6" long, like in the team drawings, they can be attached to the face of a 2x4 too (part 18, TE-23318).
I’m waiting to hear if i should make them. School isn’t going to let us store the charge station in the gym, so we’re looking for a cart to be able to move it around on end. There’s a 3ft wide hanicap ramp between the gym and our buildroom where we would have to store it.
Yeah, we have to store ours each night as well. Two string students can carry it (~100’ for us), but it’s definitely, heavy, bulky, and unwieldy. A 2-wheeler would be a big help if you have one.
We have to go from one side of the school to the other, whole lot further than 100ft. I think our wood shop has a home depot lumber style cart and i was going to see if it would fit then ask to use it. The Wood shop is next door to us. Hopefully it will fit
