I’m building an intake for my robot, and in order to get the top set of sprockets to roll the ball on to my puncher, I need it to spin the other way. How do I accomplish this while running it off the same motor as the other two levels? See picture attached.
I am a little confused about the question but I can tell you this. there is no good way that I am aware of to use sprockets and chain to make 2 axles spin in opposite directions. you would normally use gears to do that. once geared, you could sprocket and chain the power to another further away axle and get what I believe is your desired effect.
Put the chain backwards on the second sprocket. Sorta like this:
/-----\ O
aa O -----------
O = Sprocket
- and / = chain
Ignore the a, it’s for spacing
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Are you talking about like a wright brothers chain setup?
To clarify what TaranMayer is saying… Look at a serpentine belt system that runs the accessories on a car’s engine. Consider the loop of chain like the belt; the pulleys(sprockets in your case) that are inside the loop will run one direction and the ones outside the loop run the other direction.
Depending on your set up it might be easier to do what Fusion described using gears. Less space taken up and simpler design.
Good luck!
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I was on my phone earlier, I’m now on my laptop. Here is an inventor sketch of what I’m talking about:
blue = chain
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Thanks for the help! I believe that the two axles might be close enough for just gearing them, but I’ll take a look at the serpentine system too.
That system doesnt work very well with the chain that vex uses. It is too thick especially for short distances.
It works pretty well. I sometimes use a standoff instead of the second sprocket even.
interesting. I never thought of this as a viable design.
I know this is super late, but how do you connect the chain together with that design? they can’t overlap in the center…?
Plz don’t revive old threads
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I think it is fine reviving this one as it is relevant to the topic and the thread isn’t super old. If you were to use that design you would need more sprocket’s not shown in the picture to link the chain together, overall probably not worth it in all or almost all situations.
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@DRow I think this needs a lock
No, it doesn’t. It’s a valid question.
One would need a third sprocket or a roller or something for the chain to be able to link. It wouldn’t be that hard to do, just an idler sprocket.
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…
where was the thread when I needed it 3 months ago…
time for a partial rebuild
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My bad
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