Hey VEX community,
My rookie team 6682 came up with a pretty neat prototype lift system about a week after the game was announced. Obviously it doesn’t have a manipulator yet but I think it’s a pretty good starting point. What do you guys think?
http://youtu.be/7sxTSsRxRBI
http://youtu.be/LE3ZJXHA5xU
After a few modifications, the bottom of the lift is at about 38 inches off the ground, and the top is 50ish.
I assume that by that you mean the bottom of the last piece that stays vertical. So if I understood correctly your lift height is 38", as you need to keep in mind that the cubes are intaked (intook???) off the ground and not 18" in the air.
I think the design has potential, but there are probably better options for a greater height that you might want to look into. Not to discourage you in any way, this is a good idea and if you think it will work for you, by all means go for it!
While I certainly agree that this design isn’t optimal for height, there are a few ways I can think of to have the intake be able to get a cube up to the highest post.
You don’t necessarily want to go more than an inch higher than 38" if you think about it, at least at the beginning of the season. I think many teams are forgetting that there are only 2 high goals on the field this year and you don’t get anything extra for using them. Each of the 4 39" goals has a capacity of four totaling 16 cubes and you there is total accessible goal space for 19 cubes if you count the floor goals. As there are only 22 cubes for your alliance and you will want at least 3 cubes for your Skyrise, you will run out of cubes before you need the high goals. Yes, your opponents will take up goal space, but at least at the beginning of the season, I would expect tipping robots (which would be avoided by shorter lifts) to be more common than filled medium goals. What you are more likely to want the height for is the Skyrise, but if you have an intake for the Skyrise at the top of your lift, you could build a 5 section Skyrise on a 38" lift. Plus, in elimination rounds, you will only want one robot building the Skyrise, so good intake, lift, and chassis that can efficiently and reliably handle cubes will be the ideal ally for a team who can build a full Skyrise.
Beware of long axles. If you intend on competing with this lift (and I know it’s still a prototype) you will need to keep your sprockets much closer to your gears on the lift, or you risk seriously torquing your axles and losing chain tension due to the axles bending.
Double up the chain with one set of sprockets close to each side, and add some more layers of reinforcement (bearings) to keep the axle from bending.
Thanks for the advice! I was getting very concerned with how much the axles were bending so I’ll definitely look into doing that.