Toughbox Assembly Video on YouTube

Darn, people already beat me to the obvious puns. I must improve.

I’m not sure if our plans include the AM Toughbox on drive, but I’m glad to see a design with a solid pedigree in the kit this year. Keep 'em coming!

Yes… On the “Toughbox User Guide” we show how to assemble it with the motor mounted to the polycarbonate plate first.

When we took 24 of these to FIRST this summer, Kate Pilotte mounted the motor when it was still assembled and she preferred that way also. So… yes, there are assembly options.

Andy B.

Thanks a lot Mr. Baker.

I’m going to have the kids assemble these monday and add them to the kit chassis. wahoo rolling chassis in 1 day.

Andy,

Congrats on the video as well as the use of your children.

My personal belief is that any time we can show 1) how simple things can be done, 2) that females can do it, and 3) that younger age groups can be involved are all furthering the goals of FIRST.

Thank you, sir!

Robert Hatchett
Mechanical Engineer
Mentor of Team 1262

How do we mount the CIM and the Transmission box? Any suggestions?
Rob
Team 2116 RobotFutures

Fantastic!!!

No excuses anybody…

if 2 little girls can assemble one of these, you have no excuses to say you can’t… Let your programmers figure one of these out, raise their mechanical self esteem.

lol, great work ladies!

The kit frame contains transmission mounting plates.

Good question. I was wondering that as well. Based off the CAD drawings and not physically having the materials in front of me I couldn’t figure out how the plates get attached to the transmission. I plan on tinkering around with the parts to figure it out but if anyone has already mounted it and has some hints that would be appreciated.

Also, is there any suggestions on how we can interface the transmission with a encoder? We haven’t had much luck with the gear tooth sensors and really liked the encoders that were on the Banebots Xmission last year. Any suggestions out there for a Andy Mark compatible equivalent?

Many Thanks!!!

Andy,
Great video and great product as always! Thanks for taking the time to put this instructional video together for our younger teams. Please thank all of your product assembly instructors as well.

PS so in this video i noted why i have had trouble during assembly and what my teams have been lacking during build season: BACKUP DANCERS

thanks again for showing us all the way

Because I seem to have missed this, and don’t know too much about gearbox terminology (I’m ashamed to admit), What is the output shaft speed on a Toughbox when combined with say the CIM motor from the KoP?
I’m not sure of the output speed of the CIM motor either as of right now.

The 12.75:1 ratio is related to that magic end number but how?

Thanks to anyone who will take a moment and explain this.

Hi Elgin,

The Toughbox reduces input speed by 12.75 times. To find the shaft speed you take the input (CIM) speed and divide by 12.75.

Shaft speed = input speed / 12.75

The input speed depends on alot of things such as fiction, load and voltage applied. The CIM at 12 volts and no load is roughly 5000 RPM (off the top of my head).

If you are interested in how different voltages and loads can change the output speed, I would strongly suggest checking out the JVN design calculator sheet that is posted in the white papers section.

Best of luck,

RAZ

Another nifty CIM number to remember is 88.5 rev/s. In the past, the FIRST documentation has rated CIM free speed at 5310rpm; if you divide by 60, you get 88.5rps. Knowing that number makes calculations with CIMs much quicker; how often do you measure mechanism/drivesystem speed in terms of something/minute? I would (probably) be willing to wager that it is much less often than measuring in something/second (ft/s, deg/s, m/s, etc). If you just remember 88.5 then you can skip dividing by sixty in your calculations, saving time. Especially useful if you’re sitting in the middle of Psychology and you feel a need to run some drivetrain numbers and lack a calculator… only a big nerd would need to do that though :rolleyes: Yes, I know I should stop doing it, but it’s so fun!

Awesome. Thanks!
I figured it was as simple as that (in a simple calculation based world that is anyways ignoring friction, stalling, etc, etc…) but just wanted to be sure.

To attach the transmission mounting plates to the transmission you need to take off the lower two bolts in the Toughbox (loosening the top two would be good also), align the two hole on the transmission mounting plate, the smaller of the plates provided, replace the bolts in the holes, put nuts back on and tighten all 4 bolts accordingly. Then, use the given hardware to attach the transmission with mounting plate on to the kit frame. The slot areas will allow for tweaking of chain tension and/or placement of output shaft for a live axle system.

Great thank you for the clarification! Much appreciated!

At the risk of looking like an idiot, am I the only one who can’t spot the yellow truck? :slight_smile:

Great video!

Don’t feel bad. If it’s where I think it is, the truck is only clearly visible for about three frames, and it’s moving so fast that it’s difficult to identify its shape.

The yellow truck is hiding in the pyramid of Gen 2’s at the beginning. It got lost somewhere in the middle due to second third and more takes, and kids (including Nick and I) that wanted to play with the infamous yellow truck.