Best Chassis for Spin Up

[VexTeamZ]

Welcome to the Forum!
If you are pretty new, my advice is to build a pretty simple 4 motor drive bot. Simplest chassis is to direct drive 4" wheels with 200 rpm (green) motors. This will be very simple, and a decent speed to start out with. It will also be super easy to program. Some topics about designing good drives have been posted by @Xenon27.
You should also check out these:
MENTORBUILT - A Robot Made in 12 Total Hours For Your Enjoyment
Harvard-Westlake Robotics: BLZ-i Reveal

[Xenon27]

@Flyingbot

Heyy, I see you sound experienced when it comes to this. My team and I started last year. We had no experience at all, and this year we are expected to build a working robot that shoots disks, spins rollers, and expands. ( last year I was the programmer so I didn’t know much abt building and still don’t ) So far we have nothing. We don’t know how to build our drive train, the intake. I know what components out rib needs to have j just don’t what would be a good starting point. I’ve watched several videos but I’m still confused. Not sure about the different types of drive trains, but I do know the middle of the robot while be spacious so the in take could be there. Tips and advice is much appreciated and needed!!! Thank you

if you’re completely new to building and you just want to get a drivetrain that works, going direct drive 200rpm (the green cartridges) on 4" omni wheels is a solid place to start, and although there are much better options, there’s nothing wrong with starting at the basics.
if you’re more stuck on the structural layout of the drive frame, I go into some detail on this in this topic: Designing Another Quality Drive
But I also used some more advanced techniques that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend to someone not confident in the very basics of build techniques.

[Illyana]

If you are new to vex, build 4 motor direct 4" omni tank drive (i.e. Vex Classic) and start practice driving it as early as possible.

You can never underestimate the value of an extra month of drive practice!

Then go to early comoetitions, see what other people have, and start rebuilding your next version of the robot.

Once you get more experienced, you can upgrade to a faster drive like @Xenon27’s

In short, the best chassis for your robot is the one your driver is most comfortable with.

[AperatureLabs]

@Illyana

If you are new to vex, build 4 motor direct 4" omni tank drive (i.e. Vex Classic) and start practice driving it as early as possible.

You can never underestimate the value of an extra month of drive practice!

Then go to early comoetitions, see what other people have, and start rebuilding your next version of the robot.

Once you get more experienced, you can upgrade to a faster drive like @Xenon27’s

In short, the best chassis for your robot is the one your driver is most comfortable with.

Joins thread to share opinion

Illyana and Xenon27 posted

Illyana and Xenon27 posted everything I was going to say

All jokes aside, I cannot stress how important it is for teams to:

1. Build a simple and robust drivetrain early,
2. Test it thoroughly,
   …and …
3. Get lots of driving practice and autonomous programming in well before competition season really gets going.

Learn how its going to get stuck. Learn how its going to fail. Learn how to service it. Reduce friction. Tune your turning coefficient (multiply your turn axis by something like 0.8 to reduce how aggressively they turn). Run into walls, repeatedly.

If you want even more practice… stick a wheel on a post as a stand-in roller roller. Lash/tape a laser pointer to a piece of structure and practice aiming. Figure out how to ram and roll or juke and roll when another team is defending the rollers late game. Learn endgame defensive/positioning strategies by scrimmaging against a cardboard box or clawbot.

Many people do not begin designing for the human element (driving) until its late in the season. Get practice in, document/notebook it, reflect on it, review footage, and be the best dang 4m 200rpm driver you can be.