Subject:
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RE: Lego Breaks
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:09:25 GMT
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Original-From:
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John Barnes <(barnes@sensors.)Spamcake(com)>
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Viewed:
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848 times
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The answer to good casters seems to revolve (excuse the pun) around
the caster radius. Using a narrow wheel (to limit turning friction) helps.
The real key is the distance from the wheel's axle to the caster's axis
of rotation. The bigger the better, since the required torque goes down.
But, as in all things, its a trade off. Make the distance too large and the
wheel tucks too far under and shortens the height of the three wheel
triangle that everything is balancing on. (You can of course use two casters
most people do, but you still end up with the leading triangle being small
which can cause toppling if the thing stops abruptly.)
Wish I got to Lego (verb ?) at work!
JB
> That's funny--I didn't remember that the Lego privileges [It's darned
> awkward at times to construct sentences without using the word _Legos_!]
> were taken away ... just the fact that all the engineers were into them.
>
> We are a fairly small company (or division), with only about 25 people, and
> quirkiness isn't exactly discouraged. Our CTO's response was, "Cool!" So I'm
> not _really_ having to defend myself ... but I was interested in finding
> that article for anecdotal references.
>
> As for me, I'm using my lunch hour to build. Among other things, it's giving
> me a perspective of how long it takes to construct a decent 'bot. So far day
> one was spent on the basic chassis and day two on mounting a sensor-equipped
> bumper.
>
> I'm on carpet, which makes using a rear caster tricky (the 'bot has trouble
> straightening out). Seems that using as narrow a wheel as possible seems to
> work better. Any other ideas about improving its performance?
>
> Doug Wilcox
> Senior Web Developer
> iMcKesson Provider Solutions Group-Needham
>
> "You see, I had this space suit. How it happened was like this ..."
> (Opening lines from Robert A. Heinlein's _Have Space Suit--Will Travel_)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Wyckoff [mailto:wyckoff@clearway.com]
> Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 1:48 PM
> To: Chris Osborn; lego-robotics@crynwr.com
> Subject: Re: Lego Breaks
>
>
> At 9:42 AM -0700 8/17/2000, Chris Osborn wrote:
> > > ``I had to make an office rule,'' he told Fortune Magazine last
> > > summer. ``No Lego playing during work hours.''
> >
> > Well at my company it was the complete opposite. About half of my
> > Lego collection is out there now. I didn't want to bring it there,
> > but after 2 weeks of the company president insisting I bring it
> > out, I finally caved.
>
>
> And what exactly are "work hours" anyway? The software engineers in
> my company work well beyond traditional work hours, so its hard to
> say they can't play with Legos between 9 and 5 if they are also
> working to midnight often :)
>
> -Ben
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ben Wyckoff wyckoff@clearway.com
> Principal Engineer
> ClearWay Technologies, LLC. www.clearway.com
>
> "Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -
> only I don't exactly know what they are!"
> Lewis Carroll, Alice, Through The Looking Glass
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Lego Breaks
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| (...) Hmmm - so could you mount TWO wheels on the caster - one with a relatively wide tyre mounted a large distance from the vertical caster axle - and another (close to the center of the caster axle) with a thin tyre? The thin wheel would bear the (...) (24 years ago, 17-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Lego Breaks
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| >Hmmm - so could you mount TWO wheels on the caster - one with a relatively >wide tyre mounted a large distance from the vertical caster axle - and another >(close to the center of the caster axle) with a thin tyre? >The thin wheel would bear the (...) (24 years ago, 17-Aug-00, to lugnet.robotics)
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