Subject:
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Re: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Dec 2005 17:50:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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1273 times
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In lugnet.robotics, “Dennis L Hitzeman” dlhitzeman@ameritech.net wrote:
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What about mounting the laptop on a caster platform similar to the syncro
platform mentioned earlier, but without all of the drive components. A
single set of drive elements, mounted in the middle of the platform, could
provide locomotion, while the rest of the wheels can just cast about in the
desired direction.
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Yes, that’s not a bad idea -- nor is the synchro platform, except that that
seems a bit complex (and expensive) for me. If I wanted complex and expensive,
I’d be building the chassis out of Lexan or aluminum instead of LEGO. :)
The trouble with casters is that they often resist motion in the direction you
want them to go, making it hard to steer -- or such is my experience with
shopping carts, anyway. Ball-bearing casters (basically a metal ping-pong ball
held in an upside-down cup, like an old-style mouse) work better, but I don’t
know that I can make those in LEGO. I wouldn’t be opposed to using non-LEGO
casters if I could get a good connection, though.
That reminds me of another issue previously pointed out: stiffness across a wide
platform. I think it’s probably good to have the drive wheels spaced widely, so
they have more control authority for turning the bot, but that does leave a
potential sagging problem in the middle. It just occurred to me that, since
I’ve already given up being 100% pure LEGO in this project, I could just get a
sheet (or some rods?) of Lexan or wood or whatever to span the whole bottom and
provide support.
The main advantages in using LEGO at all, for this project, is the high-quality
motors and gears, and the great variety of different configurations I can try
out. But if it takes some additional materials to make it work, I’m OK with
that. This will be my first “real” bot, and I need to give myself whatever
slack I can to get the job done!
Best,
– Joe
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | RE: How much weight can a LEGO chassis carry around?
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| What about mounting the laptop on a caster platform similar to the syncro platform mentioned earlier, but without all of the drive components. A single set of drive elements, mounted in the middle of the platform, could provide locomotion, while (...) (19 years ago, 9-Dec-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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