Ok, so I’m having trouble where to put my cortex? Last year, it was in a horrible spot, and I want to make that better this year. Also, if you have any tips/tricks with v5 I would be happy to know!
Make sure to put your cortex or brain in a safe but accessible spot. Maybe on a base of an arm. If you are doing tray bot. I might suggest putting a bar underneath it so you can have your battery and cortex since the tray will protect it and it will be out of the way.
My advice is to also use shock absorbing material between the v5 brain and the structure - such as the VEX foam. This reduced occurrences of power glitches on a robot with a particularly aggressive puncher last season.
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Other recommendation, be careful not to run battery cables through lift mechanisms - otherwise bad things happen.
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I cant help but notice you are using axles on your tilter joints, I’d suggest replacing them with screws.
One more thing, your topmost tilter joint (what is connected directly to the tray) only has one axle transferring power directly into the C-channel. I would suggest putting some bearing blocks there to prevent the axle from damaging the metal over time, or just switching to a screw joint.
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Oh. Maybe add a slim bar that goes across the arm’s base that can fit the cortex.
my coach has mentioned that using axles as tilter joints would be better, but I don’t really understand in detail why. Don’t screws align better with the bearings making them more precise and smooth?
IMO you’re right. There’s very few times where you would pick an axle over a screw joint, but you should ask his reasoning.
Honestly the only times axles should ever be used as joints is when you are powering something directly from the motor. Most any other time a screw should be used (unless in the case of screws not being long enough)
Screws are able to be cantilevered, support heavier loads, and in many cases they have less friction than axles. Axles can be directly driven from a motor and can span longer distances (not that they would be particularly useful over much more than a 3” distance)
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If you’re powering a lift with only one motor, you’re gonna need a long axle somewhere depending on how compact the lift is. It’s basically impossible to link power across long distances without compromising on friction or space in which case using an axle makes sense.
Axles aren’t bad, they’re just not properly used. You should drill out the hole the axle goes through and make sure the bearing blocks supporting the axle are perfectly aligned. Depending on load, you might prefer a high strength axle over low strength. In the case of a joint, axles work fine as well so long as they are properly aligned and if using gears, a green insert is used. Though the shape of Vex axles aren’t particularly better than that of a screw, the stress load an axle can hold is not significantly less than a screw. You only see a large difference because a screw doesn’t span over 2 inches. Nonetheless, I’ve bent many screws before.
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I am currently having that issue
Could not write a proper response earlier, so here it is:
Although I did not specify, I was talking about low strength shafts not HS since many use low strength shafts where screws should be.
And I do generally agree with this statement, in fact we currently have an 8” LS shaft on our robot in order to transfer power across a “long” distance. That being said, we would have liked to use chain in the application, but do to spacing we could not fit chain in.
I certainly agree that shafts are often the best option for transferring power over a long distance, but in many cases there are simple and more effective ways of transferring power through effective use of bracing and other means.
In the case of a mid powered lift you would use a HS shaft, I cannot think of a way where a LS shaft would be applicable there.
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It depends on case by case. If one axle is transferring all the power in the lift, then you probably will need a high strength shaft (it also depends how much load is on the lift).
In general, I use screw joints because they fill in the little gaps in a bearing flat to a greater degree than an axle. If the axle is not rotating however, a screw or axle can be used interchangebly. I like how easy it is to cut an axle but shaft collars aren’t the best locking hardware. So if I were to choose, a screw and nut is overall better performing.
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