Hey guys, this is my first time making a ratchet ever, and I made one for my catapult. It worked fine with normal banding (amount needed during driver control), but when I add more rubber bands for autonomous (boosting), the ratchet slips a ton. I’m not sure how to fix it, any advice to make it stronger? Here is a video: Ratchet.Slipping.mov - Google Drive
Thanks in advance.
When something similar happened to my ratchet, I just added more rubber bands onto my ratchet until there was enough force to keep the catapult down
Try different materials, and adjust the variables you can (Screw length, nut type, standoff, spacer) See what works and keep iterating.
Your motor isn’t fully secure. I don’t know how much that would help, but you should definitely tighten it. I can see it wiggling in the video.
Your ratchet might have a hard time gripping the gear. Try different designs and placements for your prawl/ratchet arm and add bands if needed.
It looks like the axle going into the motor is 1/8" low strength. Try replacing it with a 1/4" high strength axle so it flexes less. I’d guess that this is why your motor is wiggling (along with loose motor screws like JeterPeter said).
I’d also check the bearing flats on both axles to make sure that the holes in them have not been distorted/worn.
I used a shortened screw head for the pawl and a 24 T metal gear for the gear. Sand the screw head down until it’s flat with a bit of the torx still there. Make sure you can still tighten the screw! It works quite well for me.
I do have 1/4" axles going through the motor and I took the screws off the motor because of hot swap. Does anyone know if hot-swap is necessary for a catapult motor? If so, are there more secure ways of securing the motor?
Use an 11”zip tie to secure the casing on your hot swap motor.