My team is having trouble with size constraints. Is there a way to build a drivetrain that allows room for large mechanisms in between the wheels while still allowing multiple motors?
We are using 4 motors, with chains running from back to front, and spacers so they don’t get caught in the Omni wheels. We are also having trouble getting metal pieces to run parallel. Is there anything you suggest?
Could you send a picture of your current robot? So we can know how your robot is built like?
First of all, pictures please
Well, drivetrain sides are often measured by “holes”, or the amount of holes between the 2 outer c-channels (like 4-hole wide or 5-hole wide).
Chain drives result in really wide drivetrains. Try using gears instead (much thinner).
I don’t know exactly what you mean by parallel, but most alignment issues are fixed by having something called a “crossbrace” connecting the c-channels together, as seen below:
Chain drives are not recommended in modern V5RC due to (1) possibility of chains snapping and (2) how much wider their drives tend to be compared to gear drives.
4 motors is also not recommended in V5RC due to the many 6 motor drives. 6 motor drives are much more powerful (tank vs pickup truck) and all the other mechanisms can divide 22w of motors + pneumatics across them pretty easily.
@Gigahertz.t
The front of the robot is wider than the back, in a trapezoid shape.
Well that’s certainly not good.
Make sure that your front/back cross-braces are both the same length, use shoulder screws (if you have them), and check for bent c-channels. If you’re trying to fit something big between the two sides of your drive, I’d recommend either making your entire drivetrain wider, or if that fails, stack your motors on top of the wheels, like 4082B:
Is everything fine now?
