I have these VEX IQ parts that I have NEVER used, and I’ve been coaching for about 8 years. Can someone tell me what they are used for? Specifically, how they could be used in a competition. I know some of their names, but never seen them in use. It would be great if VEX created a video showing practical uses for these or all parts for coaches.
I’m not sure abt all of them. I know 1 is a weight that’s often used to counter balance certain mechanisms often seen on “pinhead” style bots this year. 4 is just a piece that sticks of a shaft it’s frequently used in “bac” tech this season. 6 is an internal gear used for a d4rb mechanism, and number 7 is used in a differential pto which is hard to explain but capped pins has an amazing YouTube video on it that I highly recommend. It’s a great motor sharing mechanism that was commonly used in high level teams last year and is beginning to emerge this year with teams like paco on YouTube.
I’ve seen multiple team use the first part as weights, or a flywheel. Our team used the third part for organizing wires, and the seventh one is a differential gear, meaning you can use it to build a differential system, a mechanism that allows you to transfer power between two different systems. More about that can be found in the Capped Pins’ video here.
I always encourage teams to read the legal parts list. There are a lot of interesting parts that are not included in IQ kits, even with the competition expansion set. https://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/25-26/viqrc-mix-and-match/documentation/legal-parts-rev21.pdf
I would also recommend watching the following video and its sequel. My son’s time learned a lot from both and were able in incorporate some of these into their robot. They also are just fun to watch 
. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dngl2F_IRyI&list=PLmn97mWjsWocBNg2GAcS0Z3GzxcLX_MU3&index=2
I would try google lensing these parts. You can probably find what they are and how to use them.
I’ll give that a try.
Yes! This is a great list of names, but I wish it also explained more about their uses.
Yeah, we use it as weight as well, but I’ve never seen it used as a “flywheel”. Still confused with the diff gear. Love the idea for part number 3! It would be good to organize wires.
Great stuff! Thank you! I couldn’t find vids on the internal gear use in d4rb. Kind of curious about that. Yeah, the differential is still hard to understand its purpose even after watching the video.
This is a great video! I don’t know how I’ve never come across it. Thanks!
It’s a ring gear for a planetary gear setup. It has 36 teeth and is meant to be used with five 12t gears to give a compact 1:4 or 4:1 depending on which gears you choose to drive. Theoretically you could have the ring gear move too for more optionality but I’ve only seen it used with the ring locked/stationary. Here’s a fun website where you can play around with planetary gear settings.
Oh! That’s very helpful! I’ll bookmark that site right now.
Yeah! That is another one that I’ve never used.
You all have been very helpful so far. I feel like I’ve upgraded my coaching a little bit more.
the millenium falcons!
Here’s a picture of the 3DP prototyping phase of these.
Convenient to make some fun boxed shapes. Definitely a bit of an odd-ball part, and one that probably isn’t as useful as many other parts, but they’re cool when you find the right use case!
Shown in this picture is a prototype length of the Offset Truss Beams, a bit longer than the -1110 part that is actually tooled. Those truss beams make for good ways to make trussing, or a quick and dirty scissor mechanism (seen in the VEX Retail Construction Scissor Lift!)
Just to burn through the OP Questions fast:
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Flywheel weight – add this to a spinning mechanism to increase rotational inertia. Or just use it as a dead weight for ballast/CG distribution! Heaviest part in the IQ system!
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Small Turntable – Turntable bearing
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Truss Beam – See my message above. Nice for creating Trussing, Scissor Mechanisms, etc. The jogged portion of the beam allows you to keep both sides of the “scissor” on the same pitch plane.
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End Lock Beam – One end of the beam is a square bore, to be driven by a shaft, and then can be connected to longer beams via IQ Snaps. Likely to be used after a large gear reduction to create an arm or something.
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Socket Linkage/Ball Ends – Allows for some slight misalignment/ pivoting/ rotation.
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Planetary Ring Gear – everyone else has touched on it.
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Differential Carrier – lots of YouTube videos out there that explain this better than I!
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Cam – Converts rotational motion into linear motion.
VERY helpful! I have a lot of new pieces that my kids can now correctly use! Thanks!
I like the clear plastic!!!
I’ll need to do some of the diagonal trusses. I have a slew of the lift kits from when Costco had them at Christmas.
The last one is a cam, i can’t remember what it does but search it up I used it in DT 4 years back