IFI sells the Linear slide metal piece. I have found that there is no real good way to power it other then rig up a small wheel and use that to power the slides up and down. It would be kind of cool to see a motor or some attachment to use a motor to power the linear slides.
My $0.02
-KL
well, if you look at the gallery ont his forum, you will see pictures of ArtDutra’s triple play bor, which used a chain and sprocket setup to raise the slides.
I’m talking about a specific part to power the slides, so you don’t always have to use limited supplies to power the slides.
I have the slides as well, and the plastic chain anchor I proposed in the new products (Wheels, Chains, Gears, ‘n’ Such) would be a perfect match. (There are other solutions out there, but they require a bit more “rigging”.)
Instead of chain and sprockets, you could also use a length of 1/8" rope and modify some vex wheels or gears to act as pulleys. Both of these are legal for FVC robots, if that’s what you’re asking about.
FVC only lets you use 40" of 1/8" nylon rope, so that wouldnt go very far.
Art didn’t even use 40" of chain on the two stage triple play elevator.
One way to make the linear slide move would be to have a linear gear piece that worked with the gears in the kit. It would have teeth like a gear, but it would be flat and straight. I had the idea to take one of the gears from the kit and machine it so that the middle was gone and you only had about an eighth of an inch plus the teeth. Then cut it and at that width it would be flexible enought to straigten it out. But my only problem is how to attach it. Acording to the official rules you can’t use any kind of epoxy which is the only thing that would work with my idea.
vex should make a flat metal piece with teeth on it like you said so vex gears can grip into it this would help for sliding the slides on the linear slide or if you wanted to steer your bot like a car does and slide the piece back and forth changing the angle of the wheels to turn, i have just used the chain to do it but a piece with teeth would make it much easier because its a pain to rig it
or they can just come out with a flat gear piece that you could atacth to any piece you desire, now that would be helpful
Here is a rack that meshes with Vex gears and it’s cheap.
http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm?terms=8745&cartLogFrom=Search
yeah, those flat plastic gear pieces are what I was thinking of. Thanks
I might just make a part in my engineering class to mount a motor to the slides that is a new part and not just a part adapted to work.
are the slides aloud to be used in the compition
Going by the rules, they should be.
Linear slides are definitely FVC legal. They were legal last year too.