If possible can you send a picture of a 6 wheel drivetrain with two motors?
If it is one motor per side you need another one or it will overheat and barely have any power
both work; a four wheel is faster and a 6 wheel is more easy to control. Preference this based on your needs.
I think if you have 6 wheals, it will have more friction, making it a slower bot.
4 wheels are fine. If you want to add traction wheels you want 6 or 8 wheels. All omni just make sure you have at least 4. as long as you dont have that much friction 2 motors, one per side, is fine
This reply is entirely innacurate. THere is no relationship of wheels to drivetrain motors (except for 0 wheels, perhaps)
@SpencerFrom1060 were you thinking of motors. Also speed depends on gear ratios, if you have them, or coding. The wheels matter for speed but i dont think it is enough to matter.
This is for Vex IQ right? Because both of the 1060 teams have Vex V5 for their Icon, and I’m confused on how you can have an 8-wheal drivetrain for a Vex IQ bot.
Yeah but you can use two motors for 6 wheels; thats whats common. You can use 4 motor but i dont reccomend just use a faster gear ratio and lighter bot!
Yes 1060 is a v5 team. Vex iq is easier than v5 but you can apply the knowledge from v5 in an iq way. You may not have different sized wheels, but if you do you could fit the smallest wheels for 6 or 8 of them depending on your design
I don’t understand why you guys are helping with a robotics program that we aren’t even in??? None of 1060 has ever done iq. Sorry for all the trouble.
Always do four wheel in iq except for very niche situations. Its lighter, faster, and theres just no need for a 6th one.
Here’s a video of a 6 wheel drivetrain.
Their robot drove very straight because of the central traction wheels and turning was very accurate and precise. It was also quite fast for that season also. However, adding an extra two wheels does add to the overall weight of the robot so you will need to weigh the benefits and drawbacks.
Cheers.
Use a 4 wheel drivetrain, 6 wheel ones have more sections touching the ground and have greater friction, slowing the bot down.
Can we get some science here please? These seem to me to be random statements.
For example the concept by HighVoltage. If I take their idea, then a 3 wheel bot would be faster (like a trike?) and even farther a 2 wheel bot would be fastest? Can you help with traction to get more of the motor’s force to the surface which is why dragsters have fat wheels in the back?
Can we talk about 5 wheel drives? It’s three motors, but you get strafe, and I can spin the wheels pretty fast.
Thanks @VexParent2020 for the video, love that 6 wheel drive base.
Yes, I saw a mark rober video that said that 3-wheel box cars are faster due to less friction to the ground. This is the same concept, the less wheels touching the ground, the less friction. 3-wheel drives wouldn’t work for most bots because it would cause drift if the wheel wasn’t centered, and if it was centered, you couldn’t connect it to a motor. 2 Wheel drives wouldn’t work unless you could find some way to balance it.
I watched that video as well. For those box cars, gravity is the only driving force, so minimizing friction is critical. However, when a robot is powered, friction between the wheels and the ground is essential for efficient power transfer. This is why a VEX robot would perform poorly on a skating rink compared to a VEX field—it lacks the necessary traction. It’s also why Indy cars use a reverse wing design to generate downward force, improving grip and power transfer.
Regarding pitching in, my kids found that the central traction wheel on their six-wheel robot outperformed four omni wheels in every category—straight-line speed, turning speed, and accuracy. That year, their robot was relatively light, so the added weight of two more wheels had little impact on speed, except during the endgame climb. But that’s a whole different story—they ended up having the slowest climb at Worlds.
Cheers.
Vexparent is 100% correct. The friction in a Soap Box Derby or Pinewood Derby car isn’t with the ground, it’s at the axle. It’s a well known construction hack to build the car with only 3 wheels touching. Most places have a “4 on the floor on the floor” rule to level out the playing field.
A good off season thing to do is build the most common drive bases and try them out. They all drive differently and it’s good to know how they turn. That way you can decide what kind of base you’ll need for next year’s game.