Anyone know of a small, compact and durable multi-speed Transmission? Dewalts can wear down and are out of the question! Anyone have any good ideas?
I think youād need to design your own. AM doesnāt have anything in that category (yet). Pretty much any of the standard 2-and 4-speed box-type designs used in the past few years are out due to size. Youāll need a planetary type, like the Dewalts, but user-designed.
What application is this for? drivetrain, auxiliary, non first related.
Because if it has the same working time as a first robot a correctly done dewalt will last a whole season, so im wondering where you get the wear outā¦
Drive train specifically. Id try dewalts but the team sponsor said no!
Hmm interesting, Our drivetrain this year used 4 cim/dewalt comboās and we never had a problem with any of them the same with many other teams from what i know. They have a very proven track record.
But right now im looking in to building a dewalt size transmission with nicer ratios for next year so im with ya in the search.
If your team has a problem with the Dewalt brand specifically there are several other drills out there containing gearboxes you could probably interface to.
Maybe ??? http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2007122011405684&item=1-2950&catname=powerTrans
Price is right, anyway.
ā¦ Team 118 has used Dewalts for the past few years and they work very well. I am not sure what exactly you are talking aboutā¦
HOW DO YOU FIND ALL THIS COOL STUFF!!??
Please, I really want to know!
Having been the mentor (gearhead) who was responsible for the drivetrain for about 5 years, Iāve done a lot of searching around for (inexpensive) parts and mass-produced stuff that can be adapted to the task at hand. Besides, Iām looking for some cheap gear-reduction stuff to make a can crusher some day
Surplus Center has good prices on chain sprockets, though I donāt know about the quality. They also have some good prices on shaft collars and flex couplers.
This could be very useful for some mechanism on a robot: http://www.surpluscenter.com/Item.asp?UID=2007122109561941&catname=powerTrans&item=1-2948
Sadly, I think itās questionable using anything from a place called āSurplus Centerā. At least as the rules were last year. If they donāt have enough stock on hand to service a good percentage of FIRST teams, they donāt count as a COTS supplier. Looking through the inventory, I donāt think you could defend something if they only have 61 in stock. Unless you can find it actually for sale in single units from somewhere else, in which case Iād think youād cost it at that retail price but actually purchase it from the surplus center. So the sprockets would be fine since those come from McMaster, MSC, etc. But Iād be rather wary of most of those gear boxes.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1306
Gives you this:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/13413
Not sure if any of any of those components are legal nowadays (we used it in 2002) but itās pretty easy to make with limited resources, and itās from Bakerās team originally so you know it was probably the inspiration behind some of the AndyMark stuff.
Iām sure youād have to watch the rules on assemblies such as those gearboxes. Iām not that familiar with the rules. Iām sure there are many āoff the shelfā items where a supplier doesnāt stock hundreds and hundreds. AndyMark transmissions and other parts might fit in that category. In the case of these surplus transmissions, they were used in lawnmowers, so there may be many floating around, and parts may be available locally.
I tend to agree that in the spirit of the rules from previous years most items at Surplus Center or any of the other surplus dealers are probably not legal. I have purchased lots or stuff from Surplus Center over the years for my personal projects but the only thing I think we have ever purchased from them for use on our FIRST robot was #35 chain master links. A couple of years ago I was ordering some other stuff from them for a personal project and ordered a bunch of their #35 master links (like 50 IIRC). At $.35 each they are about as cheap as I have ever seen anywhere. We are still have probably 30 left so we should be good for a few more years. The current stock is over 9000 so I would think they would legally count as a COTS part equally available to all teams.
This brings up a question: Since these are less than $1.00 and are technically a fastener for chain should they or should they not be included in the cost accounting?