robot is powered on.
The lights are wired in parallel
and have the wires attached directly
to the front panel to reduce the
chances of a powerful impact causing
the wires to move and potentially
detach from the lights. The wire leads
are routed to the power switch and
use the same high current rated
connector as the rest of the robot to minimize the number
of spare parts needed at an event.
After handling the LEDs, I moved on to putting the
drive pods together. The first step in the process was to
press-fit the bushings into the inner and outer frame
members. The reason for selecting bushings over bearings
came down to two factors: With no moving parts, the
bushings will be less prone to getting jammed up with
arena debris over the course of several events, which would
possibly add a substantial amount of extra load to the drive
system. Plus, they are far more compact than most bearing
options that will handle the same load levels, which keeps
the overall robot weight down while maintaining a great
deal of strength.
With Nyx, the drive chain is located directly next to the
inner frame member. Because of this, the bolts used to hold
the nutstrip in place had to be countersunk to prevent the
chain from rubbing on or snagging the bolt heads.
The two halves of the drive pod are connected with six
threaded aluminum standoffs. On the prior version of Nyx,
I used five of these standoffs and never experienced any
issues with bending or flex. So, I chose to use a similar
setup on the new version. With the standoffs moved from
the edges of the chassis to the area between the wheels,
I decided to add an additional standoff to help handle any
shock loads it would experience.
With the drive pods completed and all of the nutstrip
installed, the chassis came together quickly. The slot and
tab design meant the frame members were able to be
SERVO 12.2014 23
Test-fitting the LEDs.
The drive axles for Nyx.
The installed and wired LEDs.
Bushings after insertion in the inner and outer drive
pod frame members.
One assembled drive pod for Nyx.