I posted this on Reddit, but I want to make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to speak up if they are interested before we make a decision. Here’s the text from that post.
So, a few years back, 2083 had a mentor that had moved to Colorado from the midwest, and had been a mentor of 4143 MARS/WARS in Metamora, Illinois. They brought with them an old Swerve chassis that we think dates from around 2015, powered by CIM motors. It’s too large for current FRC perimeter regulations, but it’s built super robustly.
We’ve had it in storage for a while, and after Rob and Avery and our programming team figured out some code, Blitz used it a summer ago to learn how to program and operate a swerve drive robot. We nicknamed it Spiderbot, something about it having 8 motors or something.
For 2023 season we purchased SDS swerve modules and built our own swerve chassis from scratch and it served us very well. We don’t need Spiderbot any more, and we’d like to pass it along to another team that wants to get into swerve drive and maybe needs some help.
I’m including a link below to pictures. We probably need to take the Power Distribution board from it, but every team should have those. All eight (working!) CIMs are included, along with the important part – the swerve modules and the encoders. The CIMs are controlled by CTR Victor motor controllers – some of them are still on Spiderbot, some were scavenged for a demo bot – we might or might not be able to locate them to include the missing ones. Includes workable bumpers with velcro red/blue swappable covering – very handy when learning to drive.
Obviously, it’s large and not light, so a team in Colorado or a neighboring state that can come pick it up in person is probably important. We’re in Conifer, Colorado, about 45 minutes outside of downtown Denver on Hwy 285. If you’re further away but have some way to get it from us that isn’t crazy complicated – talk to us.
If anyone is interested, please let me know. I’m not saying “first come first serve” because we want to make sure this goes to the best recipient, not just the first who asks.
We will also supply the working Java-based robot code we developed for SpiderBot, and you can consult with our team’s mechanical, electrical and programming folks if you have any questions. Bonus – if you come to pick it up we’ll have our team available when you arrive to answer any questions about anything at all.
I also wanna give a shout out to 4143 – you guys probably never knew what happened to this chassis but I want you to know it was super valuable in helping 2083 achieve swerve capability, and that capability was a major enabler for our team’s performance since then. Thank you to all teams who reach out to help others – pay it forward!
Photo gallery here: https://imgur.com/a/FTba68p
Addendum: We also have a ton of CIM motors we don’t use any more, same deal applies. They are too heavy to ship reasonably, but if anyone wants some and can come to us to get them, they are welcome to them.
