Hello, I’m from Team 1683 Techno Titans, and we were wondering if it would be better to buy or build our own winches, and if we were to buy them, what would be the best place to buy them?
Team 5771 made a winch for Recycle Rush using an AndyMark gearbox. We bought a second output plate and a longer shaft. We fabricated the bottom plate for attachment to the robot and holding the second output plate. We used hubs for the takeup spool. Worked great. Could lift a 195 lb student.
White candle?! I thought we were suppose to sacrifice our motor controllers and release that magic smoke?
Michelle -
Hereis an example of a winch that is a combination of both options. This one used a worm gearbox from Stock Drive Products to reduce the CIM motor. The advantage of the worm is that it can hold the load without backdriving, allowing you to avoid stalling your motor to hold position.
If you’re using the winch to lift the robot at the end of the match, this may be advantageous.
There are tons of examples across CD-Media of teams who have made winches for very similar applications. Just search “Winch” and you should get some good ideas.
If you have follow up questions, do feel free to ask.
Good luck!
Thank you for the advice!
Lesson Learned: After our 2013 Practice Robot came crashing down during practice, be sure your winch can’t be back driven. Ensure that when the match ends, there is something which autonomously will stop it using method which doesn’t require operator intervention. The poor robots drive train was never straight again after that.
we used a window motor directly to two hubs that we used a spools, then we made a box to support the shaft that the hubs were on at both ends
If building one, throw a wrench in the system (literally). A ratcheting wrench can provide the ability for the motor to wind then stop (without stalling) and the wrench would take the load - would require a shifter though. We used this in 2014 for winding and releasing our shooter that year.