I have been trying to find out how the Vex Pro Ball Shifter has fared over the season as of yet, but I cannot find any information except what people posted as they were being introduced.
For teams that are using the ball shifters:
Do you plan to use them again?
What are their advantages and disadvantages after real world testing?
What size wheels are you using and how fast is the bot going in high and low gear? Do you see performance issues with your choice?
We used them this year, and have found them very useful. We have not had any problems with them, and have allowed us to be a very versatile robot, as well as being very light weight. We used 6 inch VexPro Traction wheels with tread. In high gear we go approximately 15 fps and in low approximately 6 fps. We found having those 2 speeds very useful this past weekend at FLR, where we could navigate the field quickly and effectively push our way through defense as it occurred.
So overall a great choice to use them this year, and it will be an easy choice to use them next year if we see having 2 speeds necessary for the game
Aside from the issue with the hex output shaft coming loose(easily fixed with the adhesive in the KOP), we haven’t had a single problem with them. They’re just great and incredibly versatile. As one of our mentors said, “they’re too good not to use”
One thing I’m wondering about in particular are how teams with “west coast” style drives prefer to set up and mount these transmissions. They’re pretty tempting to look at for something like an off season project - hopefully we’ll continue to hear good things through the season.
We didn’t use them on the competition bot, but we’ve spent plenty of time with ours. Apart from the output shaft falling out, which is easily fixable, they’ve been great! They’re super light, and cheaper than super shifters.
We are very happy with the ball shifters. The only issue as compared to a SuperShifter is that we needed to use a smaller output and larger wheel sprocket. Oh, and a SS can have a 4:1 range, or it can be like the ball shifter with a ~1:2.7 range.
We also had the output shaft come loose, but repaired it with adhesive.
They’ve worked extremely well for us. In regard to the question about WCD mounting, we made a custom gearbox plate to offset them from our tubes so that we could put the sprocket for our live axles directly on the output shaft. wasn’t really a problem.