Has anyone ordered and received one of the new P60 planetaries? (With either a F-P or a RS 545 motor on it.) How are they holding up? Any problems surface yet? Is BB shipping on time?
We are looking at the 64:1 with RS 545 motors for our ball conveyor system.
We ordered 4 of the 16:1 but we havent received them yet. we will post up as soon as we get them. We arent going to be using them in a particularly high stress area though
we got our gearbox, but it was slow in coming
How long did it actually take?
seemed better than a week
We ordered them last Monday (1 week ago) and have not received them. At the time, it said there was a 2-3 day delay. It now says there is a 5-7 delay and that orders made last week will ship on Wednesday or Thursday.
I ordered two on January 15 and received them via priority mail on January 24. We haven’t had much of a chance to play with them yet.
We ordered P60 16:1 gearboxes the evening of January 19th and just received notification that they are shipping today January 27th. Shipping is USPS :eek: , wish they would use UPS or Fed Ex. There was no communication between order confirmation and now. The delay is painful but they must be hammered so we remain patient 
. Plenty of other things to work on …
Everyone,
Thanks for the interest in the P60s.
Given that these are a new product being used by a good number of FIRST teams, we thought it might be good for us to monitor this thread and provide answers to questions that may come up. We would like to give credit to the person who called and suggested we do this, but honestly we forgot to get his name.
Please ask any questions you have concerning the P60s and we will respond to them as fast as we can. Please understand that we do not continually monitor this forum so it may take a little time for us to post a response.
It seems the largest question right now is around delivery time. We have been working 7x24 to meet the demand for the P60s
All orders for P60s placed before 1:00PM Mtn time yesterday (Jan 27th) have shipped.
Orders placed yesterday afternoon or today will likely be shipped on Thursday or Friday.
Orders placed Wednesday – Friday will likely ship next Monday.
Starting next week we hope to maintain about 2 days from order to ship.
We do not anticipate any problems or delays due to materials, all lead times are a direct result or machining and assembly times.
A few things to note:
The screws on the 64:1 are a bit short. They engage enough to hold but longer would be better. We have not been able to find an affordable source for the 2-1/8 inch long screws so we had to go with the current 2 inch screws. If you are worried, you can pick up some 2-1/4 inch screws and cut them to length.
The grease used is not critical. We use Mobil XHP 222 Special, it is readily available from many sources includnig McMaster, Grainger, and MSC. Some people have chosen to get the gearboxes with no grease and use a light oil (you might be surprised how much resistance the grease adds.) We can’t directly recommend this but have found that it works OK for intermittent use. Keep in mind that you can (or will soon be able to) purchase the gears separately if you push it too far
When assembling the gearbox, ensure that all 4 spring pins are in place in the front block. They keep the ringgear from spinning. Only two engage at a time depending the the direction. If one is missing in a high stress application, the other may push out and allow the ringgear to spin.
The blocks on some of the geasrboxes are a bit tighter than we planned, we have adjusted to correct for it. There is nothing holding the gearbox together besides the 4 long screws. If you are having trouble separating the blocks and the ringgear after removing the screws, you can gently tap the blocks to remove them.
Please post comments, questions, and suggestions. We appreciate candid feedback and will try and respond in a timely manner.
BaneBots
We just received our 16:1 and 64:1 P60 gearboxes. I hooked up a 64:1 to a RS-545 and a 16:1 to a FP motor whose shaft I cut to match the length of the RS-545 (and swapped out with the appropriate pinion of course). Both motors draw over 30 amps, no load; no extra load anyhow.
Of the three things I fiddled with (4 ring gear clamp screws, 2 motor mount screws, and the pinion) the pinion location seems the least idiot proof. Can anyone offer up a CAD file, or at least a distance from the back of the pinion gear to the front of the motor location boss that results in acceptable “no load” load? That or how far a stock rs-545 shaft is proud from the front of the pinion face (positive or negative).
Thanks,
Travis
Can the P-60’s be face mounted? We would have gone with them, but it didn’t seem like you could face mount them. It looks like you might be able to get longer screws (the ones early mentioned that hold the whole gearbox together) and use those to face mount it, but I’d be worried that it would compromise the structural integrity. Is this doable? Is there any way to face-mount them or do they have to be mounter from the side?
In response to post #10 by travis:
Based on what you have posted, it sounds like the pinion is extending too far into the gearbox and causing it to bind resulting in the high current draw. The top of the pinion should be 0.540 to 0.570 inch from the face of the motor. Unfortunately, due to variation in shaft length and boss height on the motors, the only thing you can reliability measure from is the face of the motor. When using our RS-545 motor, you should push the pinion onto the shaft as far as you can without it touching any part of the boss or bearing on the front of the motor. The shaft should never be proud of the pinion, if it is you will need to shorten it so that it is not.
When tightening the 4 screws holding the gearbox together, ensure that you tighten them evenly like you would tighten the lug nuts on a car wheel. If you pull one screw down tight with the others loose, the blocks will not be square with the ringear.
In response to post #11 by Ice Berg:
The current P-60s are not designed to be face mounted, we simply didn’t feel we had room on the face of the front block for mounting holes. We plan to offer a version that can be face mounted, but it will not be in time for this FIRST season.
We have thought of a couple ways you could possibly face mount the current version.
1 – Face stud mount: You could use longer lengths of 6-32 all-thread in place of the screws. Screw the all-thread into the back block and let it extend through the holes in the front block. Use nuts on the front of the front block to tighten the the gearbox together. The all-thread extending from the front provides studs to face mount with.
2 – Screw through mounting: You can use the 4 screws holding the gearbox together to also mount it. You will need screws long enough to extend through what you are mounting to and into the back block. As long as all 4 screws pull the back block up tight against the front block (and the front block up against your mount) you should be OK.
BaneBots
I believe that this binding can happen to the 36mm and 42mm gearboxes as well. Team 86 had a motor issue last season similar to the one described by Travis in Post #10 with a 42mm unit. Does a similar measurement (0.54" to 0.57") exist for mounting pinions for these smaller gearboxes?
We are planning on face mounting our 64:1 P60 gearboxes. What is the hole spacing on the front plate? I didn’t see it in the drawing on the website.
Thanks,
Ryan
In response to post #13 by Jacob Plicque
The same problem could exist on all of our planetary gearboxes. In general there is only so much room for the pinion; if the pinion extends beyond it, the gearbox will bind or jam when the screws holding it together are tightened. The measurement should be similar for the 42mm gearboxes. It is likely a little less for the 36mm gearboxes – we will need to look it up.
In response to post #14 by RyanS
The corner holes are 0.59 inch from the center line of the gearbox. If you prefer polar coordinates, center of holes is 0.840 inch from the center of the gearbox, holes are 90deg apart. Knowing that a picture will be much more helpful, we will try and get the drawing updated as soon as possible.
BaneBots
I pressed on the pinions with two 0.005" shims to keep the back from bottoming on the motor boss. Three out of four pinions were still ~0.6" proud of the front of the motor case. I filed all the faces to just under 0.57" and now all of the motors (including a RS-454/256:1 combo) draw <5 amps, no load. With the stock RS-454 shaft and the FP motor shaft cut to the same length, the end of the motor shaft was still recessed below the pinion face with that ammount of filing. If you don’t have acess to shim stock, a piece of paper is about 0.003" thick.
Thanks to Banebots for speaking with me at length on the phone the other day, offering several suggestions to combat my issue.
Travis
The FP motors come with a gear attached to their shaft do you have to swap out the gear on the end of the shaft to get it to work?
Yes, you have to swap out the pinion gear with the 3.2 mm shaft pinions from banebots. You also have to shorten the shafts on the fisher prices.
Any updates on the 3" shaft availability?
Also, we have some of the 5mm pinions for the 42mm gearboxes still. Will these work for the new P60 gearboxes?
The 3” shafts are now available as well as 4.5” blank shafts for making your own.
All the old 42mm pinions will work with the new P60 gearboxes.
BaneBots