There was some talk in another thread about making Vex projects that float. I was just thinking, I could make some Vex compatible pontoons if anybody was interested. Many different shapes could be made… any suggestions? I’m thinking long and thin (basically a tube), maybe spherical, who knows. Would anybody be interested in purchasing parts like this?
OK I whipped up some pics- obviously not a final product but gives you a good idea.
i made a bout out of 4 2liter coke cansand it flouted perfictly.how much will u be selling them for?
I’m not sure. If there are a few people that appear interested, I’ll look into it more, but I wouldn’t imagine it would be too expensive.
i would buy some if they were 20$ a set(2)
Floats or props?
i meant floats, but you could sell 2 floats and 2 props to me for 25, do you have a picture of the prop design?
The props would be a while coming, but they would probably be about 4" in diameter, maybe less. The floats would be able to come sooner.
so wat is the set price on them?
Nothing yet, haven’t made any prototypes- but I would guess $20 for 2 pontoons like the ones pictured. Any suggestions on modifications for them? More mounting holes, less, ???
You should make hole in the underside of the pontoons, so you can put weels under the pontoons.This way, it could drive off of land and into water!
good idea but you wouldnt need a hole in the underside of the pontoons.you could just use wheels on a bar that goes up and down. and the motors could drive the wheels using chain and sprockets
I would just say put the wheels there anyways- over to the sides of the pontoons.
i would be interrested in buying some. props and pontoons. [email protected]
let me know what you come up with.
right now i’m still working on getting my t-maxx differential working with less slop. other than the slop it’s amazing to have a 2WD bot thats moving from one motor gives an extra slot for something else 
and also have a mini table being built with x and y axis hoping it will work who knows.
I would buy them if they came with a warranty. But otherwise it is too risky to have more than 100$ of electrical equipment over water held up with only a few pieces of plastic. To ensure that the micro computer doesn’t get water damage it would be a good idea to make a mountable water proof container for the battery, radio receiver, and micro computer.
I would test the pontoons, but I couldn’t offer a warranty because if someone overloads them and their bot sinks, they would just say it’s my fault and I have to buy a new kit. They would be guaranteed to float when I ship them, but after that they would be yours alone. Anyways I was thinking fill them with styrofoam so if they do get a leak they will still float. The test I was going to use would be to weigh down the floats and keep them totally submerged for some time, I guess overnight would be what I ended up doing, but then checking for any water entering the float.
Good idea for the waterproof case. I’ll think about that one.
Miller, that differential idea sounds pretty cool! Care to elaborate any on that?
nice pictures. although like already stated, water + vex = very dangerous.
electronics=money+water=money down the drain
I dont think i would take the chance, it takes one mistake; misbalence, leak, or the hundred other things that could go wrong. I dont think i will make amphibious but i wish you the best of luck with this project.
I need to bring this thread back from the dead.
At one time i said i would not have anything to deal with water bots. But, let me tell you what happened.
I was on the road, Groton, CT aka New London. I stoped at a toy store cause i was bored having been there for 3 weeks straight working 10 hour days and not having anything to do. Well anyway I saw a toy Submarine and since thats what I was working on the Sub base I thought oh wow this could be fun so I bought it and took it back to the hotel they had an indoor pool there. And since Management knew me due to the fact i spent 5 months there already they said i could put it in the pool that they did not see a problem. So Underwater sub was so much fun. I couldn’t put it down it would dive to the bottom of the 9 foot side and wow just amazing. but in my travels i managed to accidentally break it while it was in my suit case so there went 10 dollars down the drain yes 10 dollars for RF sub that was 18 inches long and about 5 inches in diameter. 6 broken fins were glued back on and it wouldn’t dive or steer rigth anymore so i disected it. and was amazed by what i found and i want to do this to my vex kit when the floats are made. the controller was mounted in a waterproff case that had sealed rubber grommet for the ant. the case had outlets like a you could hook a hose to it and that they did clear fishtank hose between the motor and the controller kept all the motors and electronics in teh same airpsace with hosed connections it was so simple it was crazy.
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/waterproff/1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/waterproff/2.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/waterproff/3.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/waterproff/5.jpg
So with this knowledge it might be a bit expensive and added weight but i’m thinking about a plexiglass box for the controller. with maybe 4 or 5 outputs on it like one for motors, one for imput and outputs, 1 for power and 1 for RF.
take those outputs being about 1/2 to 3/4 in dia and you can put custom manifolds where everything can branch off and go to it’s respective locations. that will take loads of preplaning. the motors would be inside of acrylic boxes with rubber grommit seals for an output shaft. I don’t know how to make 3d moddles like scatter does but if i did i would be making all kinds of stuff. for design options. Now Scatter about the Tmaxx differential… on next post.
here you go some pics
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/4wd/1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/4wd/2.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/4wd/3.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/4wd/4.jpg
There was no steering but it had full swivling capabilities would be nice i think i can add some shocks to hold it more stable had problems over twisting and flipping over only had 1 motor runing the whole bot at a reduced gearing so it moved pretty slow but it was fierce at crawling over anything with awd. that was my proto type to check my couplings which i might add kept breaking under the stress not the nylon matereal but the 20 ga copper wire i was using for drive pins or lock pins. so that tells me 2 things those little vex motors are fairly stout. and 2 i need a better idea on drive pins.
it’s still sloppy i’ve made like 5 different versions of the coupling now and the most recent is a 2 part coupling where one shaft floats inside the other shaft with a pin through the both of them but it’s an alignment issue as well i need 2 set screws to try and center the square shaft. but other than that. it interfacees very well! i was surprised that it could do as much as it did. here is another bot i was trying.
This bot did have 2 motors turning the main drive shaft at the front of the truck i made the gearing box the trucks front grill and the drive shaft had teh clutch on it under the controller. I had a flaw in design i was linking them together which like the 4wd will work but you got to make sure that they are perfectly mirrored. so i couldn’t get the system to mount right it was starting to get grossly out of proportion. so i really really need to find a way to get some universal joints made i might buy some tonight lol from http://www.sdp-si.com/ and direct link
https://sdp-si.com/eStore/PartDetail.asp?Opener=Group&PartID=24778&GroupID=545
anyway here is the truck
http://webpages.charter.net/eyedee/images/vex/truck/1.jpg
to be cont