It’d be nice to have torsion springs available for Vex. Not necessarily extremely powerful, just with a little bit of force. Hooray for potential energy.
Right now, our “torsion springs” are either rubber links or elastics…
For that matter, compression springs of some sort would also be very useful.
Inside the clutches are small and very stiff springs. Probably not exactly what you want but we have managed to make a suspension using them.
Agreed, Vex spring would be sweet!
We would need multiple sizes…
would small springs like that make mounting on wheels better?
(a suspension so all the wheels will touch the ground)
i should test that out…
and you can also use the clutch springs for axle spacers 
Never thought of using the clutch springs! How do I extract (for lack of a better word) them from the clutch?
We might actually need is a spring loaded piston. Think about it, how would you mount a standard spring to Vex? It won’t fit the hole pattern.
The piston would need both a fixed mounting option and a pivot mounting option (similar to the pneumatics).
I need to think on this one…
BTW, I had thought of using the internal spring in the clutch for a freewheel last year.
FREEWHEEL:
A Vex freewheel or freewheel gear would be really, really neat!
_Cody
Where’s the challenge if teams get all the various parts they request? I enjoy seeing how teams overcome challenges with the parts available to them. When my team is building a robot I stand there an think about all the parts that would make it easier. But I think they learn more by being creative with what is available to them.
Of course I do want the rocket packs and tractor beams that I see in the game animations…
Tractor beam you say…
I almost used the Portal Gun in Round Up but I realized that it would create major situations that could not actually exist. Like opening a portal under the ladder then another portal off the field.
ANYWAY, moving back to the actual topic at hand…
We already have elastics and we already have rubber bands (technically also elastics) and finally we have the pneumatics. Pneumatics were annoying when we used them because they leaked, a lot. I would LOVE to see someone post a mini-tutorial on how to stop pneumatic leakage.
As for springs, open nearly any mechanical device from the keyboard that I’m typing on to your toaster, garage door, even some of the tools that you work with and you’ll find springs.
I’ve done the mental work and I pretty much have what I believe to be a simple solution: Metal Wire. Sell it in spring form and sell it in rolled form. All we have to do is cut the spring form of it down to our desired size then use pliers to create a bend at each end. Then we sandwich the bend (hook, whatever) between a bolt and metal. Similarly to wiring AC terminals on a older switch.
_Cody
To get the springs out of the clutches all you have to do is push the little green pins out of the side and open the case.
Not sure how well that would work though… To act as a spring, you have to harden the metal first which prevents permanent bending.
I believe the VEXplorer claw has a small double-tortion spring in it that keeps it closed when not under motor power. I believe you could cut it in two to get a pair of competition-legal torsion springs.
I removed this spring from one of my claws so it works better with a servo for the grip drive. If I can find it, I’ll post a pic so you can see if it would meet your needs.
Cheers,
- Dean
Optionally, depending on your application you could modify the Vexplorer arm gearbox and directly mount your manipulator to it. I’ve seen teams do this to great success.