After going to a tourney, I’ve been wondering if a short-drive train (9.5 inches long wheel to wheel) would work. Could 3 wheels spinning at direct 600 rpm with a low center of mass (air tanks and brain and battery at the bottom) work well and what are its pros and cons? I wanted to do this to save weight and also I wanted to put a fixed piece of lightweight plastic to get rings out of the corner. I plan on making a wider base for the robot to compensate for its shortness for mechs such as climb, but I’ll have gears outside to help with rotation.
If you are going to run a small drive base, I would suggest not running a 600rpm drive. Our team has a small drive, but configuring it so that it wouldn’t tip upon stopping would be pretty hard. Plus, we only ran a short drive due to our T3 hang design.
Furthur, hook and hood intakes require a certain height you robot has to be (in order to have the intake actually put rings on), so theres that
So to put it:
pros:
lighter
faster
cons:
less space
possible tipping issues
(possibly) slow
As you mentioned, a smaller drive would work with everything you said, but I would still suggest running a bit longer drive, maybe 11in.
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I recommend making it larger. Our drivetrain is 12"x13.5" and it has so few connection points that adding anything is very difficult.
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