Firstly how do people that used them like them. secondly are they going to make a new one next year or make more of the same design?
FRC558 used the chassis this year and we really liked it. We modified the axle holes to accept 3/8" bolts and ran it with the WCP dead axle colson setup. We also purchased a set of the single reduction 6 motor gearbox. The combination was excellent, and we couldn’t have asked for more from it.
It’s a shame they are currently out of stock, the team would love to pick up an extra one or two frames for offseason work.
The axle holes for that frame are on tabs that stick out from the bottom of the side rails. Did those tabs bend at all for your team this year? Did your robot get involved in some big hits to find out if those hold up?
They held up completely fine for us. Weadded lasercut plates that attached on those tabs(ie. we attached our axles to those plates) in order to raise our chassis up a few inches.
We’re planning to do another run soon, and have them available for off-season development.
Those of us working at VEX have no advance knowledge of the FRC game. When the game is released, we will likely pull together a team of people and evaluate it, then make decisions about the “2014 Drive-in-a-Day.”
We plan to continue to offer the 2013 Drive-in-a-Day for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for the update. We’ll order another set when it is available. Is there anything in the works to provide a “wide” or a “square” version of the chassis under the 112" rules?
thanks for the quick reply.
We used the chassis and loved it. We took several very hard hits this year and didn’t have too many issues. Our front frame rail is bent pretty bad from a run in with the pyramid but other than that it’s been great.
The tabs on the bottom don’t bend when you use the tube axle setup because each axle acts like a frame member.
We loved how customizable the chassis was, I only wish they had stuck with the original idea of using #10 holes instead of 1/4".
For the Average Joes, the Vexpro 2013 drive-in-a-day chassis was a great learning tool.
It was really nice of Vexpro to post some details of their drive-in-a-day frame elements. My team wanted a wide version, so we adapted their design and had it made by our sheet metal sponsor. (If Vexpro had offered a wide version we would have just bought that, saving our sponsor’s time for another part of the robot.)
Adapting Vexpro’s design was much faster than working out our own from scratch. More than that, we probably would not have been confident enough of our sheet metal design skills to go with 0.090" if we were designing from scratch. Now that we’ve seen a design cycle (including complete practice and competition 'bots for 2013) we will be much more comfortable designing our own sheet metal structures next season.
I think it is a great system! I liked working with it because of the simplicity, but found several complaints. I found while assembling it that the tolerances were off. When I bolted the bolts on one side perfectly, the holes were misaligned on the other side. I had to push really hard in order to put the second set of bolts in. Also the battery holder is good, but putting it in another position other than the predesignated place wasn’t very easy. The battery tray wasn’t the best designed piece in my opinion. Other than that, it was a great kit and it served the Discobots well this year. I cant wait to see the next revision of the chassis.