Hi again, it’s Koen from team 51548B. If your wondering why I just appeared in the vex forum, all you need to know is that I got bored over Christmas break and came hear to share my thoughts and ideas and what I have learned as a first time vex participant.
I want to talk about PTO systems anyways. If you have clicked on this and you’re wondering out of your mind what a PTO is, it’s okay, because i’m going to explain. A PTO stands for Power Take Off. This is where you use the mechanical power of an engine or in this case a motor, to transmit power to another mechanical device that doesn’t gain power from an engine or motor. For example, say you have a regular 6 motor drive-train. You have 2 extra motors but you want to spare them for other functions and you are trying to build an intake. To do this you do a PTO to an intake from the drive-train. To start out you build a structure by attaching two c channels in front of the front wheels gears about the height of a triball and you attach bearings and a gear the same size that connects to the wheel gear. On the same shaft of the gear you attach a sprocket on each side that is on a c channel facing horizontal with a chain to a smaller sprocket for a speed increase. On the shaft at the end of the new c channels you attach a row of small 2 inch flex wheels, about 5 or 6 of them. With this new setup you have an intake that spins reverse when you go forward due to the fact that it is PTOed to the drive-train and it is at the height of a triball allowing you to hold the triballs due to the fact that the flex wheels come down a little below the height of the triball.
That was just a way too long example, but you should get the idea now. There are other ways to do this though and with many functions. Another way of doing a PTO is with Pneumatics. Here is another example. Say you want to do a regular 2 bar or 4 bar lift even. First you build your lift, I can do another post on that at another time. Now set your lift aside. You have to figure out how to do this. I do not how the pneumatic pieces connect with shafts and everything but first take one of your pistons and say we’re doing a 2 bar lift, which is very simple. You can take your piston and attach the gears on the shaft which is connected to the piston. On these gears you have your two c channels for your arms that are braced to ensure eveness and levelness. With these gears you have on the outside of the supporting c channels for your lift another gear that is locked with shaft collars on the shaft. Your spacing for the gears on the inside of the c chanels has about 1 inch of room to move to the left. When the piston is pushed forward or to the left, the shaft with the 2 bar gears moves an inch to the left and the gear on the outside connects to the drive-train allowing you to let the lift go up when you back up so you can match load for example if you have a flywheel or catapult on the end of the 2 bars.
Anybody who reads this I hope y’all understand what I have posted. I just enjoy sharing information. Please give me feedback and share your thoughts and ideas as well.
