What do you prefer?

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
#1

What type of chain or gears do you preffer? My personal favorite is HS gears. This is a poll to know everyones overall FAVORATE.

#2

Depends on the application. However, I tend to use low strength gears/chain unless going HS is absolutely necessary. This saves a lot of space. We built robots with “low strength” parts as the only option for years, and can still be used to do just about any situation with some good engineering. I’m not a big fan of “brute force” solutions to engineering problems.

#3

I don’t particularly prefer one method over the others. However, we have had many problems with low strength gears breaking under a variety of applications (all with a relatively high amount of force though).

#4

almost ALL the drives i design now have HS chain instead of gears
they have more flexibility in where you can place the motors
and with a few simple “tricks” you can tension the chain perfectly

#5

Well if im CADding i undoubtedly prefer gears, however if im just messing around in real life, then chain!

#6

Its hard to prefer one over the other since all are good if chosen for the right application.

#7

how come?
it it just because you are “too lazy” to Cadd every individual chain link?
(its ok, nobody does :P)
or is it because in real life, you dont have to “think, and plan” all the hole spacing for everything to fit perfectly?

i totally agree with that
for drives, i “prefer” HS chain because we can mount the motors where they are out of the way
but for arms, we typically use HS gears because the chain “plastic” stretches too much under the arm tension

#8

well i dislike chain because it takes so long, however if im working on cadding a bot for competiton i do chain, even if it does take 4 hrs(literally!)

#9

Idk what you guys are talking about, I always CAD every link… but the war between gears and chain for me is one of those things that just cant be decided easily. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and in somecases it even comes down to budget for my decisions. If anyone looks at my FTC Crab system that was designed with budget in mind. SO there are alot of factors in asking that question.

I stand neutral :stuck_out_tongue:

  • Andrew
#10

i think its a toss up and really depends on the application and ratio needed you cannot get some ratios with gears or chain alone. personally i like hs chain on my drive because if i need to change the ratio i can easily do that (it makes it quick to find just the right ratio) and i like to use both chain and gears on my arms but for most small features i use gears

#11

I prefer HS gears almost any day… :smiley:

#12

i was like that until i saw the value of not having your arm loose meshing on the gears because the shafts would bend apart (we had a really heavy arm in round up because we attached sliders to our pole or “needle”) now im coming around to the hs chain

#13

There are ways to fix this…

In fact, I am working on a prototype that could change gearing systems…

My team had a robot that would high-hang using an arm… Happened to be the same arm we scored with… Not as nice as 1103, but we did hang at worlds… :smiley:

#14

nice and we found that if you put pillow blocks in the middle of the shaft near the gears it works wonders but we didnt have the room for it so we went with the hs chain

#15

I’m the only person who still uses standard gears? I just rarely need the high strength.

#16

I use the standard gears quite a bit as well but I always double them up.

I LOVE the HS Chain. I really like the way you don’t have to mount things any specific number of holes apart and you can easily change ratios if you need to.

~DK

#17

I’m using standard gears for my lift, but it’s a high torque situation that can only be solved with the big standard gear.

#18

I would have to agree that it depends on what you are using it for. They are all very useful for different things.

#19

I like the HS Chain system, but it’s really expensive, also I wished it was metal. I also love the small metal pinions, they are really powerful, even though I’ve broken several teeth on them due to the low quality metal that’s used. The normal chain is just too weak, I always chip the sprockets, but the chain never breaks. @_@

#20

lol.

I love the high strength chain. It is so powerful :smiley: