Answered: Continuation of Old Q&A: Clutch Modification

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC > Nothing But Net (15/16)
#1

Hi Karthik,

Take your time to answer these questions as I believe you’ve earned a decent break.

One of my questions is regarding the continuation of a ruling from the last 2 years regarding ye olde’ clutches. (Toss Up Q&A here, Skyrise Q&A here)

As per these previous Q&A’s, is use of the internal spring outside of the clutch legal?

New question, is the modification of the teeth inside the clutch legal, assuming that the clutch will be put back together again as before?

In the instance of modified teeth, would you want teams to open up the clutches to show inspectors that only legal modifications had been done?

If you would like a picture of the sort of modification I’m meaning, I would be happy to supply.

Thanks for the work you do.

#2

Thanks, Jamie. :slight_smile:

Yes, this is a legal modification.

Yes, if you could please supply a picture (and describe a use case), that would make it much easier to answer this question.

#3

Thank you for your first ruling.

Details regarding the internal modifications are as follows:

The idea is to create something similar to a ratchet using the internal teeth of the clutch. This would be for application on flywheels, for example, to protect the motors a bit from excess wheel momentum at the end of a match.

I’ve made up a quick example by filing the teeth on the inside of a clutch. One side of the each tooth is ramped, the other has been made more a shear vertical. This is a fairly crude job, but it should give an example of what I mean.

In addition to these photo’s here’s a quick video to demonstrate the clutch sliping much easier in one direction than in the other.

Hope this helps explain my modifications.

#4

Thank you for the detailed explanation and photo. This is a legal modification.

#5

Ok, thank you for you response.

#6

You’re welcome!

#7