We made some final touches to this and test drove it today. We still have the arm, pneumatics, and claw to put on it, all the custom parts for which we have and will assemble tomorrow.
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1186/im000580op6.jpg
Looking at it from the front. We have two omni wheels in the back, and two kitbot drive wheels in the front. It drives and turns pretty well, but has lowsey traction. We tested this with the extra battery sitting in the front for ballast when we ran it on carpet, and that improved it somewhat. We still have to attach 10 to 20 pounds of elevator, claw, and pneumatics on it.
I should also note that we seem to have a nasty habbit for having parts dissapear. First it was nuts and bolts off the frame, then a nut holding on a wheel collar, which we temporarily fixed with electrical tape, so who knows what will happen.
Hey looks like you guys are moving along just fine also. I’m also from a rookie team and i have 2 questions for you guys. First, the weird looking traction wheels did yall order those or custom make them them. Second are you using the brace for a TENSIONER?:ahh: If so CHANGE IT!!! it will wear out your much faster that you may think…trust me.
P.S. If you need a sprocket to use as a tensioner the size is the size of GoKarts (I think its size 35)
Speaking of batteries it is just good measure to insulate them. We where a rookie team last year – side note, HOLY CRAP!! thats 599 teams to sign up after us (looking at the second post, team 2582), righto back on topic-- One of our members, for what ever reason, dropped a screwdriver onto the open battery connectors…leaving some good size gouges where the electricity arced. He never worked on batteries again…
Onto the robot now.
That is a very nice looking robot you have there, I wish we had been that lucky last year.It looks as if it would be moderately difficult to put anything else on that system so I am really curious how you are going to make that work, which by the way is really cool. I have never seen such a fluid, laid out electronics board, very nice work on that. Just a question though about the board itself. What prompted you to mount the robo controller sideways?
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And if you are getting lousy traction, might I suggest better traction wheels such asAndy Mark’s or it could simply be a lack of weight.
If you mean the wheels in the back, those aren’t traction wheels. They’re omni wheels, which can be purchased from www.andymark.biz.
You may be right about the brace as a tensioner. The top picture seems to show plenty of clearance. If I’m wrong about the clearance, then the brace needs to be moved, and the Toughbox can be slid to tension the chain. Size of chain is #35.
Same thing I was thinking about the braces. I would just remove them; the kitbot frame is plenty strong by itself. They’re just added weight that pose the risk of interfering with the chain.
Also, I would suggest protecting that vertical electronics board. If a trackball falls on it as it is now, it’s toast.
If you need more speed/torque, consider buying 2 more CIM’s. They’re very cheap (I believe only 25 bucks). Gear down and you’ll have the same speed with much higher torque, or vice versa.
Besides that, looks great! Great job with the battery placement.
We’re going to protect the vertical board, and we are going to put a peice of angle iron underneith the plywood so it doesn’t break when we mount the pneumatics on it. We tested it on carpet about a half-hour after I took these pics (and after we ran it down the halway for fun) it runs pretty well, but we had to mount the extra battery on the front for ballast.
Edit: No, we did not use the brace to tention the chain, it clears it by about a half-inch.
