Prevention for getting high-centered on rings

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC > Tipping Point (21/22)
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Our team has been having problems with rings getting stuck under our robot during the competition. I’ve seen some solutions for this, such as ramps, but unfortunately we haven’t had much luck with them, as a ref in one of our competitions said that anything that can get close to the ground (and could potentially scrape if violent contact with another robot occurs) would put us at risk of disqualification. Is there any solutions that you guys have that are small, durable and are cost-effective?

Thanks in advance.

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We just put long standoffs in front of the wheels

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Thanks! I’ll try this to see if it works in our case.

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Welcome to the forum

Our team put c channels under the rail where the wheel is mounted, like this, to prevent rings from being sucked under the wheel.

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20211112_2017203264×2448 1.65 MB

(just ignore everything else wrong with this image, lol)

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I’d love to do it this way, but we don’t have space on the outside of our robot for bars (as in currently the wheels are exposed). Now that I think of it, this could be the problem, but we just don’t have time for a complete drivetrain redesign. Thanks for the suggestion though!

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wait what? you dont have bars on the outside of your wheels? how has your drivetrain not fallen apart?

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Try using polycarbonate or any non-shattering plastic. Building with plastic is very flexible, and they are literally flexible, allowing you to make it into basically anything you want.

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Wheels exposed is cantilevered wheels,
Canti wheels are usually not a good solution so I would change that as soon as you can
Plexiglass works wonders around the robot for rings as do standoffs
You can also take 1 bar strips and pillow bearings and put that around the drivetrain

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Plexiglass is an illegal plastic. Most people use polycarbonate, which is legal.

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thanks
I meant polycarb and the others used
But plexi is the first thing i think of

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Thanks for the advice! Would you go with 2 wide C channel facing outwards (It would hit the wheels if it was inwards) or one bar strips? I am unsure if we have long enough strips, so we would probably have to cut them.

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I like the 1 bar strips because I can curve them around the wheels, 2 wide can work going straight across, you woundnt need the pillow bearings in that case

I don’t run the 1 bar all around, just front and back wheels on each end
For the sides I do standoffs/lexan

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Use polycarb (unless you already have an obscene amount of it on your robot).

reasoning

it looks better