Drop Center Drive

[Vexly]

Hello forum!
I had a few questions regarding the drop center drive.

1. Has anyone had any success with a high hang with this base? When I tried, the robot couldn’t hang due to the fact that the back two wheels are not powered. I have tried moving the middle wheel (the one that is powered) back as much as I could, but it still doesn’t move forward enough to lock the hang.
   Also, if I chain the back wheels to move with the middle wheel, wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of the anti-tip or am I wrong?

2. Is the drop center drive reliable for autonomous and programming skills? When I had had tried driving the robot with this type of base, it seemed slightly inconsistent which could play a factor in programming skills.

Thanks in advance!

[Jack]

Yeah one of the main drawbacks to a drop center is its difficulty to hang because the pivot point which it lifts around isn’t at the very back of the robot. Which causes the back wheels to be forced into the ground and unlatch any hanging hook. There’s probably a way to do it with a simple hook but nothing I’ve tried works. I’m working on a pneumatic system that folds the back wheels in at the end of the match so the won’t dig into the ground and hopefully won’t force the hook out of the pole. All I need is 1 more piston then I’m ready to try it out and see how it goes. For the programming aspect, there’s not a lot of room for quad encoders but I think you could get IMEs to work. It does bounce around a lot though which could cause some slop

[Sebastian_Melendez]

So to answer your first question. There are a couple of ways to hang. If you run a 2 bar you can lift your lift down and come up (Reading the second post is seems you might hang like this. This is also how most teams hang.) But there is another way. You can hook the same way but you continue to run you lift up words. (Some teams hang this way, it can be more efficient and have an easier hook) I have seen teams run thins kind of have with that drive and it is very consistent. Your back wheels do not have to be power but they do need to be out side the metal so they can freely role up the wall. (I am not sure but I think disco hangs this way. )

[Mr_L_on_Yoshi]

So to answer your first question. There are a couple of ways to hang. If you run a 2 bar you can lift your lift down and come up (Reading the second post is seems you might hang like this. This is also how most teams hang.) But there is another way. You can hook the same way but you continue to run you lift up words. (Some teams hang this way, it can be more efficient and have an easier hook) I have seen teams run thins kind of have with that drive and it is very consistent. Your back wheels do not have to be power but they do need to be out side the metal so they can freely role up the wall. (I am not sure but I think disco hangs this way. )

There are other ways to hang too, mind you. Look at RI3D for example. Our bot is doing something similar while maintaining a full-sized tower and lift. Here, there would be only minute defects from a drop-center drive.