Any teams out there using the Rev Starter Bot for this year’s competition?
https://www.revrobotics.com/ion/2023-rev-ion-frc-starter-bot/
888 - Robotiators used it pretty successfully last weekend at the CHS Bethesda district event:
@akiyengar could probably give more details. 
5 Likes
I’ve seen two Revrybot-inspired designs in New England, both played in eliminations and 4473 was on the winning alliance at the Southeast Massachusetts District Event!
1 Like
888 had a great robot! Their mechanism I think was the REV starter bot, but it looked like they were using the Plummer Industries drive rails. But, I didn’t get a super close look.
112 is using a rev starter bot inspired robot. (At least the arm)
My team (4230) used the REV bot with an Everybot intake, then customized the dimensions to fit the Everybot drive train. It worked really well for us!
3 Likes
We (8280) are using a modified version of the starter bot. We made it a little smaller and changed the configuration a bit to fit a mk4i swerve drive.
2 Likes
Looks like teams 2048, 5197, and 8280 at the Wayne state event built rev starter bots.
You are exactly correct, the Robot was the REV Starter Bot, with Plummer Drive Rails, 2nd year with the great Drive rails, and now the REV bot might meet the Everybot intake to make more of a REVERYbot. It was even more special for the Team on Sunday to show the REV Starter Bot to @Greg_Needel and how the team was able to take the starter bot concept to another 10 to 15% further and now is making the last 10 to 15% adjustments. Thanks for the visit.
4 Likes
That’s correct, we (4473) built using the REV geometry with undrilled box tube. We also had to use alternate gearboxes. We are presently rebuilding the arms and tower with MAXtube and some updates to try to reach farther while being half the weight, we think we can hit the high cube shelf with this, pending testing. By mounting the tower in the next holes forward on the chassis, there’s room to move the gripper mount 2 inches farther away for a total of 2.5" more reach. We are also adding a second arm motor/gearbox and chain on the opposite side for some redundancy and strength. There’s plenty of room to take the design further.
We are also updating from the stock kitbot Toughbox minis with NEOs, to the Thriftybot 3 motor plates to hopefully add some acceleration as all the swerve bots were just running circles around us. Our largest issue in competition was that we kept breaking the single arm lift chain from the arm gearbox to the jackshaft. I think we broke 6 of them likely due to our arm being heavier than REV spec and also a machining tolerance problem partially fixed with coke can shims around some bearings. We added a second parallel chain as a bandaid and drilled a bunch of holes to lighten the arm a little. That got us our best matches Sunday morning and through finals. The gripper worked reliably when operated properly and required no attention. Overall the arm system is easy to work on, and was simple to build for some very inexperienced build team members. We don’t have any regrets with the choice to build the starter bot, it’s been a great experience for a very green build team.
1 Like
We were also considering adding a second motor for redundancy.
As my team is 90% rookies it was also a great choice for us.
Yup, we loved the Plummer rails last year and this year we thought to bring them back and then add the REV starter bot on top. Right now we are prototyping a new intake design based off of the 118 everybot
2 Likes
In order to help with the weight of the arm we added gas shocks to each side to assist with a more balanced lift and set of the weight of the arm, McMaster-Carr
We also made a new mount plate with the assistance from @Austin_Plummer to adapt to an EVO 3 gearbox we already owned. There are some updates on our blog here Robotiators 888 - 2023 Season
Please let us know if you have any questions we love to assist if needed.
I’d love to hear/see more about how you tucked in the gas shocks. I’m imagining an extension off the tower through the chain to the outside of the arm? I went through the blog and didn’t see it if it was there.
Awesome, thanks! We’ve got some gas springs on the way now. I think we can just barely tuck those in and stay within perimeter. Watching 888’s recorded matches it looks like those really help smooth out the arm action.
I’m curious how many pounds of ballast other teams added? We added 24lbs in the rear next to the battery, competed at around 110lbs dry weight no bumpers built on the kitbot chassis.
We are also quite a bit on ballast, around 40-45lbs then the battery as well. Well over 50lbs.
Back from testing yesterday, with the mounting changes to the tower and arm, we are now about 50/50 on hitting the high shelf for cubes, takes a little operator finesse. We also added the second arm motor/gearbox, and it greatly helps the control and didn’t break a single chain in aggressive testing.
That’s awesome to hear, I also 8573 is also running a REVbot starter bot or something very similar. Let us know if you all have other issues.