Hello forum users,
I am making a X drive for this seasons game and I am having trouble with strafing. I have a 11 wheel drive, 4 mecanum, 2 traction to prevent defense, and 4 tracking wheels. Whenever I strafe the tracking wheels and traction wheels have a lot of friction, which prevents the drive from actually strafing. The tracking wheels use 2.75 inch traction wheels. Does anybody know the solution? Thanks.
My first instinct is that this is a troll post. However, in the case that is isn’t, my solution is below.
If you want to strafe, you don’t want to use traction wheels. The whole point of traction wheels is to prevent strafing. You definitely don’t want to use traction wheels for tracking, and you only need three tracking wheels total, not four.
Basically, build and x-drive (or a mecanum drive?) with three omni wheels for tracking.
OR
Build an omni drive with traction wheels (4 omnis two traction) and three omni wheels for tracking.
But won’t we get pushed from the side? I don’t want that. Also please stop calling my posts “troll” it is highly offensive. This is my 3rd year doing vex so I am just learning.
The problem is the traction wheels are stopping you from moving sideways.
They don’t care if your drivebase is trying to move sideways or someone else’s drivebase is trying to move you sideways, it won’t let you strafe.
I’d highly recommend posting a photo of the 11 wheel drive robot. Because it’s quite hard to picture this arrangement I don’t think you’ll receive many helpful posts otherwise.
Ok, see the second option I gave. 
Also, I will add that an X-drive or mecanum drive can prevent you from being pushed from the side by strafing in the opposite direction, so those are good options too.
an x drive has to have omni wheels to strafe, that’s the entire point of an x drive. You should never use traction wheels on an x drive lol that won’t work well going in any direction.
if you don’t care about strafing, just build a tank drive. if you do care, build an omni x drive (though judging by this topic you probably don’t have the necessary experience to build an effective x drive, so tank is probably your best bet.)
This is definitely a troll post until Vexlover72 posts a picture of the 11 wheel drive because I don’t really see how you can have a robot that can move in all directions but not be pushed around in all directions unless you have a braking mechanism.
Wait a minute what and were is the 11th one
Honestly you can start by eliminating the 4th tracking wheel cause it’s completely unnecessary. You could also eliminate the need for this thread by either reading the other threads from which it is obvious that this design will not be viable or just by stopping trolling overall.
There are plenty of threads which explain how to build an xdrive correctly.
What do you mean by build a X drive correctly? This is the way that my friend told me it was made.
I meant to say 12 my apologies.
I am not home right now I am at school. I will send a cad of the drive when I get home.
They asked if they should use a puncher or catapult in tt its definitely a troll
To be fair there were teams that considered launchers being useful for towers in the early season. In FRC 2018 teams such as 610 and 4613 used launchers to score power cubes on the scale. Tower Takeover Cube Flywheel Reveal - YouTube In this reveal you could see a vex team that started building a launcher but was unable to complete it. I know for a fact there was a team in Maine who had a catapult sort of mechanism for doing towers and I remember it scoring at least one tower but also knocking over someone’s stack.
the video description literally states they made it as a meme
Well that ruins that argument but the point still stands that VexLover could just be an inexperienced person who had an idea that other people briefly considered.
I’m leaning towards this being a troll account. First of all, they have made almost the exact same thread before: Omni Mecanum Traction. Also, one of their posts in that thread says that they are a part of team 22192b, which doesn’t exist as far as I know
Another reason is their post which says:
(I’m not saying this is completely fake, I’m just saying it seems like a troll post)
And then they talk about breaking 14 potentiometers, which again I’m not saying this is completely fake, but I think it is a troll because how, just how?
probably a troll account but could just be a really uninformed beginner
I am heartbroken. This is supposed to be a safe place to talk about vex related topics. I am here being slandered. This is outrageous. Every year I hesitate to post on the forum because of the hate I receive whenever I post. I will send my cad as evidence that I am on trolling. Truly heart breaking.