Free spin mecanum

[drunken_munken]

Can you make a free spin mecanum drive?
If yes, then how?

[TibTy]

please explain further, like on “free spin” do you want the drive base to have no motors?

[Entropy]

Do you mean one that has low friction?

[prodnotpoke]

Screw Joint, search it there are about at least 20 tutorials.

[Foster]

As I recall all four wheels in a mecanum drive need to have power applied. I think if you had unpowered front wheels and powered rear wheels, it would be just a two wheeled drive. The mecanum wheels are not going to be much of a benefit.

[u89djt]

They might be referring to the rollers spinning freely. If that’s the case, then they’re referring to standard mecanum drive.

[TibTy]

yeah, I mean I don’t really know what they mean about “free spin” maybe like low friction or smth.

@Foster

As I recall all four wheels in a mecanum drive need to have power applied.

all four of the different directions havre to have motors, however, this is not the case with 8 wheel mecum drives,

[Foster]

@TibTy

8 wheel mecanum drives,

I guess that is really a thing, so add me to one of the 10,000

KUKA omni wheels

But go big or go home, here is more configs and there is even a 24 wheel one.

KUKA omniMove®

From a Chief Delphi thread is these words of wisdom

@Ty_Tremblay

Doubling your wheels will double the surface area in contact with the floor. This reduces the force on each wheel, reducing each wheel’s traction. In short, you’ll see no significant improvement in traction by increasing the number of wheels you have.

Couple that with the fact that mecanum wheels must slip in order to work, and you’re better off sticking with 1 mecanum wheel in each corner.

[Zach_41819]

If you mean a screw joint, then yes, you can just have it be driven by a separate gear. You will need to use the smaller 2in mechanums, since the 4in ones are designed to fit a low-strength axle (smaller than the screw used)