ready to build our arm !!!
Nice bumpers!
One thing that jumps out at me: you have very little engagement of your chain on your drive sprocket, which may cause it to skip teeth if you push against a wall. It’s easily changeable with your setup, though, just add a couple of links to the chain and scoot the idler closer to the transmission.
well… the way it is right now … the chain does not skip … so yeah thanks fo the tip !!!
It looks like a good clean kitbot, with some great bumpers. I didn’t check to see if you welded the frame, but if you run into weight issues welding not only adds stiffness but loses a pound or so of nuts and bolts. Some teams also use big rivets to hold the frame together.
Do lots of testing with the chain… forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards… into a wall slowly, into a wall quickly… preferably with some weights attached to approximate your final weight.
While various mechanisms can fail causing your robot to be less effective in a match than hoped for, when you lose a chain you become ineffective. Been there, done that, it is no fun at all.
I’m not saying that this set up won’t work reliably, but if you lose a chain during the build period… even once… do not shrug it off as a fluke. Your robot is telling you something.
Jason
P.S. Have you tried pushing the ball against a wall yet? I’ll bet it just jumps right up on top of your chassis, right where you want it.
P.P.S. If you have a couple Victor Speed Controllers left over (or if you order two more) you can order two extra CIM motors for $24 each and double your torque… or change your sprockets and increase your speed… unless you are already planning to use the extra CIMs elsewhere. If you do that, though… retest that chain set up at the higher torque settings.
I really like that! Looks like a solid, reliable base. Much like the others, I cannot stress enough the importance of testing your drive trains. We essentially lost all our regionals because of a lack of testing on all components of the robot. During nationals, we popped a chain on our right drive train and had to have an alliance robot bump up alongside us so we could drive to a good defensive position. Very embarrassing. I think just a little extra tension in your chains might make a big difference in reducing the risk factor.
Indeed test test test and test some more. Once you think you have all of the bugs out test it until you find another.
We really like it. I do have a question though that maybe you
can help us with. We see that you also have a low frame.
How did you hook your bumpers to the frame. We are worried that
we will have to add another level of frame to attach them too, but
now we see you seem to have yours attached to the lower frame.
How high off the ground is your frame?
How did you hook your bumper to it and still be in the 2.5 to 8.5 inch off the ground range?
We would appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Carolyn Hinckley
ok … well u know how the chassi has holes all throughout the middle… right ??? … what we did is … we grabbed pieces of wood & drilled some holes on the bottom part… so that way the bottom of the chassi and the bottom of the piece of wood would be leveled at the same height… then we used some screws & bolts and attached them… to the chassi …
ps… our bumpers and chassi are 2.5 inches from the ground !!!
pss… ill try and look for a picture… so that way you can see what im talkin about…
great start!!
A general rule of thumb is to have atleast 120 degrees of chain wrap around a sprocket. A drive sprocket should get 180.
- Chain stretches
- your robot will be pushing against other.
it will likely skip as the chain loosens and you push against other bots in competetions.
I would definitely recommend getting more wrap on that chain.
Looks good besides your wiring being wrong. Where is your distribution block!?
I like the bumbers.
hahaha… well we have 2 levels for our elctrical system … i dont know if you are able to see it