I’m starting to see tray bots on dr4b’s more and more frequently and I’ll put it out there that this design seems like the best meta I’ve seen. Members of the community have reached an agreement that a combination of tray and tube will perform best and I think we’ve finally found an efficient medium.
That being said, what is the best motor distribution for this platform and on a related side note, how important is a 4 motor drive.
I had originally thought 4 motor drive, 2 motor dr4b, 1 motor tilt, 1 motor intake but a 1 motor intake struggles past 5 cubes. A 1 motor lift might work early season but a huge advantage of this design is the potential to stack tray stacks on top of tray stacks and a 1 motor lift couldn’t lift more than let’s say 4 cubes with stability. (Haven’t tested that)
This leads me to settle for a 2 motor drive, 2 motor lift, 2 motor intake, 1 motor tilt, and a floating motor maybe for an h
What do you guys think about this and are there any clever ratcheting ideas to keep the 4 motor drive?
One of my teams is currently making a tray on a lift and they have there motor distribution figured out and all of them on the robot already and can hold about 7 cubes.
They have a 4 motor drive
2 motor lift (100 rpm)
1 motor tilter (100rpm)
And 1 motor intake (we have a 100rpm cartridge in it along with some gearing to to assist in picking up all 7 cubes)
Having the low gearing, while it can’t pick up cubes as quick as what two motors can do, it can pick them up at a good rate.
Side note, if you put your tray lower than a 45 degree angle like most trays are, it becomes a bit easier on the motor to get more cubes in the tray.
I would argue that this design is not the meta at all. I’ve only seen one robot do this successfully at the Hawaii signature event. All other successful robots were variations of the goofy (448x) design or a cube tube in isolation. I would focus on one design and not try to combine them, simplicity and consistency will trump complexity 9/10 times.
I can’t read the plates but look at the first match near right corner. That robot completely dominates this whole competition acting as a regular tray 90% of the time but also has dr4b tower capabilities
Besides the obvious no high tower(basically irrelevant) dr4bs can descore and swap faster. Maybe this won’t be important either but late season I think it’s much more of a focus
Swapping was very important at the competition. 4142A was able to refine their tower bot and make extremely quick swaps without moving away from the tower.
I used to have a two motor drive but I ditched it later on. Wasn’t that bad of a drive, handled just as well as a 4 motor. Going with 2 motors won’t make your drivetrain go kaput. Just keep in mind you’ll most likely be out pushed.
