hy , I’ve seen so many robots building their intakes such that it can move pretty easily when faced to the goal bar, I’ve tried to apply that as well but the C-channel barely moved and caused high friction, I’ve been thinking about playing with gears to help with that and add some rubber bands for the C-channel to go back at its starting situation. But still I want to know if any specific pieces are used for this purpose .
- I assume you’re talking about VRC, not Vex VR.
- If you are talking about VRC, can we have a pic of your robot? We’ll be able to help you better if we can diagnose issues ourselves.
For friction, I would recommend using bearing flats on your c-channels, and using a screw joint instead of an axle. See this for more joint information.
Could you maybe send a picture of what you mean or what you’re fixing? If not, I think I know what you’re trying to say is how to tension your intake downwards? If so, many teams just use the weight of their intake to pull it back down but, for mine I tension it with one rubber-band.
Ok, I see your intake is on a hinge perhaps? If so, I recommend you cut some polycarbonate sleds like this:
Thank you all guys you’ve been very helpful, I’ll try to corporate all these ideas, however, I think I found the problem, I used to screw the C-channels very tightly with bearings which increased friction . So, I’m thinking like maybe( kind of sure) I should replace it with a shaft so that the other C-channel can move easily hopefully It’ll be stable and persistent enough, I’ll also add the sleds and try to decrease friction as much as possible .
Just keep suggesting I’ll maybe need them later
Yeah but it wouldn’t be stable
Screw joints have a lot less friction than axles. A screw is a circle, and a shaft is roughly square.
For screw joints, yes you never tighten the nylock nut all the way, but you leave a gap about 3/32 in wide. This decreases friction and for an intake the slop caused by it is negligible.
Axles have a lot more friction because with them, you’re trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. There ends up being a lot of friction on the corners of the axle. Also, unless it’s a high strength shaft (even then if you’re intake is heavy), unless rotated, the shaft will start to bend under the weight. Screws however are thicker at their narrowest, making them stronger.
can you please show what do you mean by axle and screw joints ?
(Correction to my earlier post: should be square peg in a square hole, which is arguably worse)
(VEX Joints - BLRS Wiki) Screw joints involve the c-channels (or wheels for drivetrains) rotating around a screw. There are various designs for it, but the image above is a basic one.
An axle is a joint that involves the two c-channels rotating around your average shaft (I call it an axle). I don’t have a picture, but it involves something like: shaft collar - spacer - bearing flat - c-channel - spacer - c-channel - bearing flat - spacer - shaft collar
Okey, I’ll try it out and update you.