Hello, what kind of setup do you use for your Cascade lift? What are the motor wattage and RPM, and is it a cascade or continuous configuration? Also, for those using the continuous setup: did you encounter the issue of the first stage lifting before the final stage, and did you find a solution for it?
Our team isn’t decided on a cascade vs continuous, but I would personally go for continuous, as while cascade might be faster in principle, cascade suffers from innacuracy and a slower speed in real life as the lift has to lift all the segments at once, causing torque in the mechanism which reduces accuracy. Also, continuous has the advantage of lower heights being quick and easy to lift to, as they only lift the top stages, so there is a lighter load! Continuous is higher motor RPM though, as there is less torque but less work being done per motor rotation, so it uses faster motors.
On the other hand, continuous does need a large spool for the string/chain (from what i have heard string is a lot better), which can be annoying, and some designs use a long string/chain descending from the lift top / end effector to the spool, which can also be annoying.
But on balance, as this year’s game definetely needs precise stacking and lift motion, I support continuous!
Search some of my old posts. This will cover a lot of your questions. In there you will find links to my YT videos… where you can see more videos in my YT channel.
Continuous lifts… the stages move based on friction. Least friction moves first. This also means a stage can move partially & stop, two move at once, etc.
Powdered graphite is usable as a lubricant. Pencil lead is primarily composed of it… and this is a nice accurate way to apply it.
Cascades are overcomplicated. You should go for something like a dr4b or dr6b instead.
Also are you using string of chain.
just want to point out that cascade is faster then continuous. also at taller heights (anything above the 2nd stage) continuous heavily struggles with.