I was wondering, How were we supposed to use the Jideco motor given to us this year? I just found the piece we had laser cut for us(we never did get around to using it). I just seems that generally FIRST is very good about giving us the important stuff so we don’t have to fudge it if we don’t choose to.
Team 330, beachbots have used that motor for the killer ramp they had. Take a look at their machine.
If I was to use the couplar, I would take few things into consideration. For example, what am I using it for, are there going to be a lot of torque involved for doing the job, is the plastic couplar good enough, or should I make a couplar out of aluminum, is it going to survive throughout the season. I would modify/add things to the couplar itself to make it work for what I want it to do.
There was no coupler included in the kit for the Jideco motor. This is part of the challenge. The plastic coupler included is for the Nippon Denso motor. Some teams have been able to find gears that sort of mesh with the Jideco (not perfectly but it works). Some teams make something that has a bore of the OD of the gear teeth, and then put set screws into the “valleys” of the teeth. Another option would be to do this but try filling the bore with JB weld (or similar compound) before placng it over the gear. Some teams go all out and carefully measure the gear and CNC their own coupler. This is probably the best route, but not all teams have that capability.
This is the perfect application for composite casting. Something that i haven’t seen used hardly at all in First robotics. With some amine epoxy and some chopped or milled fiberglass or carbon fiber you can make some really tough stuff with casting techniques. We made a coupler for a lead screw this way.
Actually, what we ended up doing was simply taking a free cad drawing of the motor, and simply cutting the part from that. If you have access to a laser or edm, this would be the best I thought.