I have had my tray able to flip up fine, and intakes to flip out fine. For the first 7stack, everything goes well. But for the second, the motors get hot and they dont perform with enough torque to push up the cubes. Attached are pictures of the rollers. 200rpm motors
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is there a chance that the cubes are squeezed too tightly? I’m no expert but if there is too much friction the motors might not have the torque to continue turning.
The cubes arent too tight, its a bit too big sometimes on the 7th cube. However it works for the other cubes on the first try, so it must be building up.
I would try lowering the amount of rubber bands on your intake so that way the motors have to do less work to pick up the cubes. That is assuming the intake is too tight. If your intake is too loose, add more bands. You wanna find that nice sweet spot.
Also make sure you are not running the motors unless you are intaking a cube. Constant running can generate lots of heat.
I would also check to make sure the treads are moving easily. Try spinning them manually with your hands. If its tough to turn with your hands, it will probably be difficult for your motors too. Try loosening up the axles if they are too tight. You want everything tight enough so it doesn’t wiggle, but you still want it to move smoothly. Make sure you are using washers and bearings where the axle goes through metal. Put spacers everywhere along the axle where there isn’t anything else. And if you have it, grease can help (but it gets everywhere so its a pain).
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@PortalStorm4000, I have the lock with the screw, and it gets too loose. From that, it still gets hot, and is locked by the screw, but can go out a small amount. Therefore, I have done all of what you said, and I do not know why the motors are on such pressure. Should I exchange it for 100rpm torque motors?
Since you said 7 stacks, I’m assuming that it’s just a result of the motors heating up and having their performance reduced to prevent damage.
That being said, I’m still dumbfounded as to why your intakes are slowing down. Check to see if the axles themselves are bent, I’ve had problems with bent axles before.
Sometimes it can be hard to tell. It’s pretty subtle sometimes.
You could try using 100RPM motors. Wouldn’t hurt.
Maybe the weight of the other cubes is getting put on the intake and the intake motors. Try intaking cubes like normal, but have a teammate start removing cubes once you hit 3. See if that helps. If it does, try lowering the angle your tray is at, or just remember during a match not to pick up your max stack.
Also by lock with the screw, do you mean a Shaft Collar?
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@PortalStorm4000, no, I do not mean a shaft collar. It is shown up there how the rollers lock into place via a picture. Secondly, what do you mean to not pick up my max stack?
I was talking about the tread/rollers part of the intake (the part the motors move) when I was asking about the intake tightness, not the rubberband mechanism.
By don’t pick up your max stack, I was talking about how you said you can pick up 7 cubes at once. But then when you go to do it a second time, it fails due to motor overheating. Try stacking only 3 cubes at a time, and see if you can stack more cubes in total by doing that compared to picking up your max stack.
It depends, if you can pick up your max stack and deposit it 3 or more times before your motors start burning out, then I dont think the motors slowing down matters, since you’ll be done with the stacks by the time that comes around.
The issue is really the weight on the motors. With 7 cubes that’s about 3¹/² pounds on the rollers, which puts pressure on the motors to push up more. Also, I figured out I have another issue. The arms and rollers+cube are too heavy for the gearing I had to push it up. It had a 100rpm motor with a 7:1 ratio for gearing. Therefore, I need to build another mechanism that uses more torque, however when I tried it, it completely bent/twisted a drive shaft bc it was going then releasing, like a stripped gear, but the space between the teeth got larger. I do not know how to fix this other than zip ties (11") which I am out of. I had 11" ties holding the shafts together so it wouldn’t do the stripping thing I described above. Thanks for your help so far!
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Does anyone have an idea of how to do this?
Use shorter axles. If your axles are long enough that your gears slip, then you’re doing something wrong.
I’d suggest y’all to consider a locking mechanism so there is minimal weight on the motors until it is powered and intaking a cube
Have you also tried to reduce the angle of the tray, to allow the cubes to go up easier and add less strain on the intakes?
I swapped it out for 100rpm motors, now i just need to increase the lock and it’ll be fine.