So our next competition is in three days, and we have almost a full working DR4B with a 4B on top. However, our lift axles are bending severely, though we know how to fix this (thanks @antichamber ). The problem we have is though we could fix this problem, we also need time for driver practice. We were thinking we could just put new axles in and hope they don’t bend before the competition. **So we were wondering, is it more important to get a great working robot without a good driver, or leave it as is, a worse robot that could break at some point, but with a good driver.**Because we don’t have enough time to rebuild and get in lots of driver practice (can only work on it at school, certain classes, mentor can’t stay after school for long etc.) Thanks in advance
You should be able to prevent your axles from (high priority) and get some practice.
Both options are valid, it’s more so up to your team as to do you want to stress test your robot and see what will happen or do you want to keep it going in the same direction and not know if it could be better
Yeah, fix the axles today, and then practice tomorrow.
I always believe that a GOOD robot with a GREAT(practiced) driver is better in the long run than a GREAT robot with a GOOD Driver. Just my 2 cents… Of course, the best would be to find a way to do both, but that is not always possible.
I agree, but even a great driver can’t do much about bent axles in some cases. I would fix them, and practice after
Ok we will fix the axles first. The issue is it’s snowing, so school is canceled today (it’s GA), and if it ices tonight we won’t have school again, so that leaves us one day to fix it. And we only can work on it during one class period, and after school a little. Our schedule was to have it completely finished by the end of winter break :\
Are you sure you’re not allowed to bring the bot home? If you can, that could get you to a point where you can fix the axles and still maintain good driver practice.
I’ll ask my teacher as long as school isn’t canceled tomorrow, I’m the driver so hopefully I can just take a mogo and a couple of cones home to practice with once we’ve fixed it.
Fix the axles first. You could always drive the day of the competition and get better as the day goes on(We do that).
School’s canceled here too!!! Messed up a competition that was supposed to be this Saturday…
We have one this saturday too (obviously), but hopefully the snow doesn’t mess it up, we still need to qualify for state
Actually, the one I was going to was rescheduled for Feb. 24, so maybe yours will be too.
Depends on how bent the axles are. If it isn’t inhibiting you too much just drive but if you can’t lift you probably have to fix it.
Well they are bent to the point where they don’t restrict the lift from going up, however they do cause the gears to slip occasionally when the axles are rotated to where they are far from each other, and when there’s stress on the lift. We are planning on just rebuilding, then practicing driving either the morning of the competition or actually at the competition.
If you have gears slipping you should probably fit some new axles in, but I wouldn’t rebuild the whole robot. Replacing a few axles shouldn’t require you to rebuild the whole robot.
Well we can replace the axles but I’m pretty sure they’ll just bend again, and we don’t want just a ton of bent axles. So we want to fix the root of the problem, not just the symptoms
Hey!! We have one in SD this Sat. if anyone’s going to Groton tell me!
Gotcha. Do you know what the cause is? It might work for you to add a crossbar or two with some bearings to support the axle if the length is the issue.
Yeah it’s basically what @antichamber talked about in this video: Vex robot close up! - YouTube
where the DR4B middle section pieces are too far apart (ours is 7 holes apart). And so there’s nothing we can put in that would be sturdy enough to support the axle