New VEX Products???

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
21

While my teams have had some instances of gear teeth breaking and axles twisting, most of these were either because of design flaws or an acceptable cost for pushing the limits of the parts. I have seen very few instances where a slight design change would not dramatically reduce the likelihood of breakage.

What I would like to see is all gears, sprockets, and wheels using the inserts. This would help prevent stripping out the hubs and allow using of the round inserts. Several times my teams have drilled out the hub of a sprocket so an axle could pass through, rendering the sprocket unusable later for transferring power unless you bolt lock bars onto them.

I teach my teams to design with what they have, so many time they have to be creative to get done what they want. Rather than totally new parts I would prefer to see a round of improvements to existing parts to make it less likely that teams will have to modify the part for use. Hub inserts and bearing block use with aluminum as mentioned earlier in this thread are the types of changes that would help my teams learn to engineer a solution.

Jay

JVN: Thanks for providing a great, affordable platform for teaching young students!

22

Dave,
Can you provide more detail on the failures your describing?
How do the 36t Gears fail?
How do the turntables fail?

-John

23

Perhaps stronger motors(?) (probably with restricted use in competitions). Otherwise some less expensive pneumatics (with more plastic parts?). I definitely think smaller sensors would be nice, the current ones are a bit too big in some cases.

24

In both cases, failures occur as the lift drive for arms bolted directly to the gear/turntable and the metal drive gear (2/4/and 6 bar designs), usually at the end of a tournament where they have been stressed repeatedly.

25

Hi John

A suggestion for your consideration is to remove the notches that are positioned every 5 holes along C-channel. I believe these notches are designed to make cutting the C-channel easier? If C-channel must be cut to length to fit a certain application, there is a fairly low probability that the cut will be made exactly where a notch is.

The reason to remove the notches is because they act as crumple zones when high loads are applied, weakening the structure and increasing the likelihood of deformation.

Thank you for considering this. :slight_smile:
Paul

26

On the contrary, I use the notches all the time.
I will buy stock 18" c-channel and cut it into two notches long or four notches long etc. and I use them all the time.

With that being said, I think that the notches on the edge could be removed while keeping the notches on the bends.

Also, vex springs that slip over shafts would be nice:D

27

could be removed while keeping the notches on the bends.

Also, vex springs that slip over shafts would be nice:D

From personal experience, I would like the notches to be gone. During our first competition, our robot got hit very hard multiple times on one side. We used a 5X25 aluminum c-channel for our main chassis brace (I know, we should have used a steel piece), and bent it 5 holes in on a notch. It probably costs less to have the notches gone, and you don’t need them to cut.

28

“We want new products, VEX!”
“Ok, what do you want?”
“Just the notches of the metal and metal gears would be nice…”
“… ok…”

Awfully “meh” demands for such an outcry, I must say. Don’t get me wrong, they’re completely valid and should be done. An idea: go on a cycle between hardware side releases (metal, gears, wheels, and such) and software side releases (sensors, motors, and LCD screen) every year.

I think the biggest things that need to be changed our fixed are: shafts and metal. Shafts can vary from strong to incredibly weak, lots and lots of bent shafts from lifts. I’m not sure what can be done to fix the issue, other than increasing their stress durability. Metal notches as described in above posts.

The software side of me is begging for new toys to play with: lcd screen on joystick, infrared scanning of objects, like FRC did a couple years ago, or a nine-axis I2C alignment sensor.

29

New products? I have a few requests.

I would like a wheel that is oval-shaped. Ideally they would have the Omni-wheel spinners, but I can see how that would be difficult to do. We had a design that could have gotten a lot of use out of them.

There’s a sensor I would like to see, but I completely understand not releasing. Ideally it would be something that detects the mass of an object resting on it, but a binary “is pressure being applied to the surface?” would be great, too. Bonus points if you combine it with the existing anti-slip mat, making for a pressure-sensitive matting with a ton of uses.

We would also like a trackball sensor, like in the bottom of a computer mouse or on a Blackberry phone. The data from that would be incredibly useful for programming Autonomous modes. Another useful sensor would be a tilt switch, so we can use that to detect if the robot is tipping, or the arm is lifting perfectly straight. A Gyroscope can work, but a sensor specifically FOR this would have better results.

My teammate would like to request a “flex sensor.” To quote him on the application, it would be to “detect bend in the scissor [lift].” I don’t really know what that means, but he’s pretty sure he wants one. He would also like to request a slightly weaker spring be made available than what is in the clutches. They are too stiff for something he wanted to do.

We could make use out of a designated colour sensor, similar to the one in the VEX IQ Kit. We made a pseudo-colour detection system with code and the light sensor, but a proper one would be nice. Maybe it could have a small LED on the sensor itself.

Finally, there’s always the debate running of “Will VEX release a camera?” I have a few people on our team who want it as a sensor that they thing they could use to create a great Autonomous mode. I have no idea if they would know what to do with it, or if the Cortex can even handle that kind of processing, but they’re insisting I ask for it. The same goes for a sound sensor, one that could detect, say, the motors making the horrible sound we all know of “WHATATATATATA” meaning something has gone incredibly wrong. That, being a fail-safe, I could see as incredibly useful sensor.

In addition to all that I would second the request for high-strength 84 tooth gears, as well as removing the notches on the metal, and again ask for an Aluminum 3x3x35 Right Angle piece to be made available. If VEX would sell Platetary Gears pre-made, that would also be incredibly helpful.

I think I’m out. Anyone else?

EDIT: Apparently, it’s called an “Optical Sensor” now, and not a “Trackball Sensor.” Trackballs have been out of use for years…

30

Can’t you use a limit or bump sensor for the second part of this request…?

31

You can, and we do. The problem is positioning it so that at if, at any point on a 12" strip something is there, the sensor is triggered.

The mass thing would be more useful.

32

I think he is looking for an analog output from the sensor. I made a pressure sensor for a robot claw back in the late 80’s with conductive foam and copper foil. I think with a little effort a potentiometer and some elastic would accomplish this with existing VEX parts.

33

On the 1st day of Christmas VDS sold to me a 3-D printer to print my own legal parts.

On the 2nd day of Christmas VDS sold to me two 45 degree open fittings for my pneumatic cylinders

On the 3rd day of Christmas VDS sold to me three different length battery extension wires

On the 4th day of Christmas VDS sold to me four 4” tire treads to match the exact diameter of omni wheels for a all-wheels-on-ground 6 wheel drive

On the 5th day of Christmas VDS sold to me some 5” omni wheels

On the 6th day of Christmas VDS sold to me six new battery holders like the back-up battery holders for no more batteries dragging during a match

On the 7th day of Christmas VDS sold me seven new belt drive systems

On the 8th day of Christmas VDS sold to me eight plastic pneumatics storage air tanks

On the 9th day of Christmas VDS sold to me nine gyros/yaw sensors with a red casing and a connection wire

On the 10th day of Christmas VDS sold to me ten robot shipping crates to take to VWC.

On the 11th day of Christmas VDS sold to me eleven new robot controllers.

On the 12th day of Christmas VDS sold to me twelve new VEXNet 2 radio transmitters

34

This is more what I was looking for, yeah. I don’t think it’s legal to make that kind of modification to the sensors we have, though.

EDIT: And to the guy above looking for battery holders, the Linear Slide Brackets that VEX sells are PERFECT. We just ordered six more, exactly for this purpose.

35

I would not advocate modifying the sensor, but you can still do this very task using a potentiometer, it would just be a bit bulkier than a transducer.

36

Don’t want much, do you?

37

I would like to see vex bring back the old linear sliders (http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex/products/accessories/structure/276-1096.html). We find that the old ones work a lot better than the new ones.

38

Meh

This would be nice

YES

This could be useful for some games

It would be nice but it needs to be done right - it needs to be mountable either on its side or back and it needs to be as small as possible so that it’s not a waste of space.

The chains to have a habit of breaking in many situations

They don’t need to be plastic, but they could be a little lighter.

Agreed, I never understood why it isn’t.

Haha we have yet to go to worlds so I don’t understand this pain :slight_smile:

We don’t need new controllers, we need an LCD screen to mount on them already. It’s been on the todo list for years now.

Well you’re def gonna get one thing on the list :slight_smile:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BRING THEM BACK. We’re using them for critical purposes on 2 of our 3 robots. We tried using the new ones but they break, they bend, those plastic parts wear out, they’re just horrible. That’s why you get more sales on the new kits - they wear out so fast and you need to keep buying new ones! The old kits are just so much better.

39

I would like to see mainly some new sensors in VEX.

A lot of these I took from other robotics competitions and experiences.

I would like some IR sensors, or some form of IR implementation in VEX. I loved how it’s done in FTC and think it adds an interesting dynamic.

Making the CMUCam HS VEX Legal is also something I’d like to see, but that comes with a change I want to see to the HS Competition.

Only things I’d like to see really.

^Also in response to LCD Screens mounted on the controllers… YES. YES. YES.

I wish they actually had integrated LCD screens like they’ve done for VEX IQ and the now discontinued VEX Pro Arm9.

40

Our team could also like to have High strength 84t gears, along with the square and circle inserts of course :smiley: .

I concur with this request, it would be extremely useful , teams have used a large sprocket along with a high traction tire, but an actual pre made wheel for this would be nice :smiley: .