Direct Drive Neo + MP

Just checking but if I want to direct drive a MP using a NEO, I’d have to cut down the NEO shaft so it fits right?

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That is not necessary. The MAXPlanetary has holes large enough for an 8mm shaft to pass through in the cartriges. The shaft length is only an issue for VersaPlanetary.

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Well I’m looking to direct drive so there will be no planet stages. Just the input and output block

Sorry, did not understand that. Yes, you will need to cut the shaft unless you print some sort of spacer.

In addition to cutting it down, keep in mind the shaft key will try to fall out (the hole in the output stage is bigger than the ones in the gear stages, and thus the key can move around). A dab of superglue held for us last year, but I’m sure there are plenty of other solutions

Another solution we came up with was to cut a small piece of pool noodle and put it in output shaft space to prevent the key from falling out.

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Just curious, what’s the use case of direct driving a Max planetary (versus just using, e.g. a hex adapter)?

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may i ask what the point of this is? just curious

Mounting shooter wheels directly to a maxplanetary is a very sturdy way to mount shooter wheels. I haven’t found a good way to mount a hex adapter to the 8m motor shaft without supporting both ends of the hex shaft.

Yup basically what @Connector5086 said. We originally had a 3:1 but found we needed more speed so direct drive. The MP is also cantilever mounted hence why we prefer that since a 8mm > 1/2 hex would either need a hex coupler which is too large or be custom made which we don’t have capabilities for (unless it’s a 3d printed one).

We might cut down the shafts or see if we can print a spacer stage. Have to confirm neo shaft is long enough for that.

We’ve done the same. And have had the keys fall out. Using thick grease in our test rig, but have some sealant we’ll try too.

8mm to 0.5 hex adapters are usually pretty short. And they’re a little pricy. I recommend cutting shafts on older NEOs if you have them. Just incase your design shifts, it would suck if all your new motors have mini shafts.

And they are a pain in the butt to get off.

Pandamaniacs went the other way and made a 3D-printed null stage to take up the shaft length, then a printed spacer to force the input stage to sit up and grab the output shaft. We don’t have a ton of runtime on it, but it feels solid and is achievable by anyone with a 3D printer.

(I don’t totally love the finish of the little tabs and recesses, but it’ll be Good Enough.)

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We are actually considering this too. We currently have a 3:1 MaxPlanetary on our shooter motors due to the same reason.

We’ve made our own 8mm to 1/2” hex shafts so we can have any length we want. It’s annoying to buy a key way broach, but you could probably make do with a needle file in a pinch.

Whether you figure out the max planetary or use an adapter shaft, you probably should have another bearing. The MP output shaft mounts to a fairly shallow pocket which itself is in bears that are quite close together, so large radial loads are not going to be great.

We did for our prototype shooter then a couple freshmen were told to take it apart so we could change some stuff. Well they unplugged the encoder wires by pulling the wiring, and that led to needing to cut the shafts on 2 brand new motors. On the bright side it gave us a reason to order more vortexes. :upside_down_face:

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