It’s mostly in the title. I’m new on here so I don’t know how this really works. I have been requested to order turnbuckles for some chains that we have on our robot. However, I don’t see the point in having it if we already have adjustable bearing blocks for tensioning. Can I get some advice?
Turnbuckles are a very plug and play solution for tensioning chains that don’t need continuous rotation - an arm, single stage elevator, etc. Instead of messing around with a slotted hole and snail cams using a sliding bearing block, you can just throw a turnbuckle onto your chain run and tighten it down.
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Using the turn buckle will make life especially easier at comp. We had a short chain run and couldn’t use one last year, and it was a massive pain to tension correctly.
In addition to bearing blocks being more difficult to adjust, it can cause inconsistencies with the mechanism. If misaligned it could bind up a bit and vary the amount of motor power that is needed to move the mechanism between adjustments, cause skipping, or even the chain falling off. And if the bearing block is what the mechanism rotates about, then adjustments could cause problems with picking up game pieces, as now the mechanism is in a slightly different position! Probably won’t affect teleop, but depending on your auto routine could really be hard to work with.