Me and my teammate are planning to build a claw for elevation before our Haskell tournament this Saturday. We have fairly started out what it looks like. (image below via Onshape)
I don’t exactly know what else to do besides starting on a base, and I’m not too sure if we would use one or two motors (I figured 2, though). Any tips on how to build the main part to connect the claw to the robot itself where it touches a gear on a shaft in a motor that will spin and cause the first C-Channel to rise, and then how to put on the other motor to where its touching the gear. And I don’t know how to program the claw itself to work and if it needs a motor or what. Please help asap!
I would suggest a gravity lock claw like this:
VEX Over Under | climbing/hanging mech (gravity lock) | 63310K - YouTube
The kind of claw you described would have a hell of a difficult time holding up the weight of the robot. Plus a gravity lock is passive.
Multiplyed by the lever effect as well.
There is no best way to connect a claw to a robot and it depends on the robot’s structure, the desired climb height and how many motors you have left.
Youtube has tons of videos showing off people’s climbing systems so it’s a great way to research designs.
You could also research other forms of climbing cause there are some much simpler climb methods available if you only want A or b tier.
Hope this helps 
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Can you explain this a bit more? A bit confused on how.
The downward force of the robot’s weight will be multiplied by the levers in a climbing mechanism and the arms of the claw.
The whole robot sits away from the pole which causes a levering effect with the whole robot as well.
This means the claw has to hold a deceptively high amount of weight and a claw like that would have to clamp with heaps of force.
You might be able to do it with 2 motors or 2 pneumatics cylinders but it’s not guaranteed. On the other hand gravity locks use no motors and are able to hold heaps of weight.
(The more weight you add the stronger the grip is)
Gravity locks are also a much simpler system and would be easier to implement in a short time frame. Giving you more time to work on the difficult part. The lifting mechanism.
In my opinion, climbing past the C tier gives diminishing returns for the time it takes but that’s just my opinion. Experimentation is key to progress and it sounds like a difficult and engaging challenge to try out.
I hope this helps clear things up and I wish you the best of luck with your climbing
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