My team is trying to use a 775pro with a versaplanetary to drive a roller on a 1/2" vex thunderhex shaft. How would we go about connecting the 1/2" hex from the versaplanetary to the shaft? Is there another way to accomplish what we’re trying to do with the roller?
this?
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ah yes! this! thank you, for some reason my searches were only turning up adapters, but nothing that did 1/2" hex to 1/2" hex
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You could use a coupler or a vex female output for the versaplanetary. We have gone the female output rout for the past two years. They worked well for our elevators and mostly proficient for our intakes. On the intakes, they were pointed down most of the time and had 3/8 shaft. They stripped and broke both years.
Our elevator had 1/2 inch and were fine.
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The Female Universal Output Adapter also works
https://www.vexrobotics.com/217-5839.html
You can get one as part of a VP lite for only $5 more than the female universal output adapter alone.
https://www.vexrobotics.com/vp-lite.html
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All the suggestion above are great - we prefer the VersaPlanetary Universal Female Output Shaft Kit. If you need another option to connect 1/2" hex output shafts we’ve used this in the past successfully - https://www.mcmaster.com/9063t37
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I would recommend the universal adapter Allen linked above or linking the gearbox output shaft to your roller another way (belt/chain/polycord/etc) rather than the hex coupler. If you end up putting a big side load on the vp output shaft, it can cause you other problems.
For some reason I never realized that Female Output Shaft Kit existed…
We’ve used a sleeve like you’ve got here, and tied it together with roll pins. Not very elegant, but definitely gets the job done. The major disadvantage to it is that it would be very hard to service if something goes wrong…though nothing has gone wrong with that setup in the years we’ve been doing it.
With the VEXpro one out of stock when we needed to place orders (plus some school-specific purchasing things that make VEX orders more difficult than AndyMark ones*), we picked up the 1.2" hex aluminum spacer from AndyMark. It doesn’t clamp or retain itself along the shaft, but it’ll get the job done.
I do see the upside of the hex tube @rstrawsi linked to; if I had a higher priority on getting a wrench on there to turn the shaft, that would be a look.
*Yes, I used to work at AndyMark. No, I’m not going around kneecapping our ability to buy from VEX.
Last year our team had this problem and had none of the appropriate hardware to fix it. So we had the big-brain idea to drill/tap 2 shaft collars and bolt them together for use as a coupler. Somehow it survived 2 regionals plus worlds, but it catastrophically failed (both collars cracked in half) right before finals at an off-season.
All that is to say, probably don’t go this route, unless it’s out of complete desperation like it was for us.
Edit: just saw the reply from @Billfred, I would not recommend using that, we tried (not specifically the AndyMark product, but very similar) after the collars broke and it failed much quicker.
I have the problem of driving a nominally 3/8" round shaft with a half inch hex. I’m going to take one of each of these:
https://www.andymark.com/products/1-2-in-hex-bore-2-piece-collar-clamp
with some longer #6 screws, spacers, and some small metal plates to engage the flats of the clamps to couple the shafts. AndyMark also has a version of the clamp without a hole, just a divot if you want to couple to an oddball size as well. Nick at AndyMark has added this to their list of product ideas for a future kit.
Drill a close fit hole in the hex shaft using a lathe to some suitable depth, insert the round shaft to that depth, then drill from the side and insert one or more spring-steel roll pins.
It’s cheap, it’s easy, it works great.
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