Crazy ideas

[Rikpal]

I'm just playing with some ideas.
Nothing is decided yet and the idea I started from isn't a real crawler.
I've often thought it could be interesting to build an RC "Rover" (yes all started from the Mars mission).
Surfing a bit I found this:

It's a big rover built for some misterious pourpose related to the Artic zones.
The tires reminds me to the Juggy tires and my brain started producing.
How could I replicate this steering possibility keeping even the standard steering skill?
One servo at each corner combined with the channels mixing feature of my 6ch Rx will do the work. The problem is that the left wheels have to rotate in one direction and the right wheels in the opposite direction.

So I came up with this:






Two motors on one axle that controls one wheel each and 1 ESC for each side of the vehicle.

Now let's shoot your opinions to this craziness.

[jason]

I think you have way too much time, and way to much money. How about you kill some time boxing this up and shipping it to me?

[Rikpal]

Originally Posted by jason

I think you have way too much time, and way to much money. How about you kill some time boxing this up and shipping it to me?

That's an interesting point of view.
I'm not going to ship it to you cause it's really hard to find boxes here.

(If you look at that pic carefully, you'll see it's only a photoshopped mockup.
I decommissioned that project before completion.)

[sparko]

Ok hows about this, complete the project, il send you a box and you can mail the whole thing back to me? :-P

[JohnRobHolmes]

your mixing is gonna be maxxed out. your design is good though. you might be able to squeak by with 6 channels, but you will have to change your mixing to get rotational abilities. 4 servos, 2 speed controls. my advice is to assign the speed controls like a tank to keep it simpler. both sticks forward is go, one forward and one back is spin.

the steering is gonna be a little more complex.
ch 1= left front
ch 2=right front
ch 3 = left rear
ch 4= right rear

mix one.
ch 1 and ch 2 mixed equally into the left (or right) stick at +100%
ch 3 and ch 4 mixed equally into the right (or left) stick at +100%

mix two (your rotational steering)
ch 1 and ch 2 mixed opposite into a stick. ie ch1 100% expo and ch2 -100% expo
repeat for rear.

this is the easiest way that i can think of to mix it all up. you could tie your left side and right side esc's onto one channel as well, but you would lose your tank steer. if you have enough mixing slots tie the two throttles together for mix one, and seperate them on the sticks for mix two

if you have a 4 slot mixing capability, you could tie all the servos together for mix two, and just control the toe in with a dial


what TX are you using? its gonna need more than single slot mixing to accomplish this.

[TwistedXT]

ya know... if some one here can make a workng hydrolic steering system on his crawler.. i think that you can make this work... Like thomas edison said... "i didnt just accidentally come up with a way to make a light bulb.. i just found over 200 ways not to make one." you'll never know you can make if you dont try, people can say yes or no all they want but when you make you'll get dam ... so you may get :? or but you outcome may be Happy building.

[TwistedXT]

Originally Posted by jason

Has anyone made a centepede style crawler before? Although i do like the whole bathroom shower shelf/kitchen fridge shelf as a body.. whatever works.

[slugzracing]

Nasa spends millions of dollars building a rover and a guy in his free time comes up with a better axle plan, Rikpal, you are awesome!

[BigJay]

Oh come on.. any one of us can design stuff that is just as capable as the stuff Nasa comes up with for probably 10% of the cost. The tricky thing about Nasa is they spend millions(billions) to hurl your model up to another planet. They're not gonna be happy if you break a steering knuckle once you get there. So... everything has to be throughly tested. Still, I throughly believe we'd be further in space if it was private industry. I guess we'll find out in the next couple years.

-Jay

[slugzracing]

It was a joke BigJay, a joke.

[FrankyRizzo]

Originally Posted by johnrobholmes

your mixing is gonna be maxxed out. your design is good though. you might be able to squeak by with 6 channels, but you will have to change your mixing to get rotational abilities. 4 servos, 2 speed controls. my advice is to assign the speed controls like a tank to keep it simpler. both sticks forward is go, one forward and one back is spin.

the steering is gonna be a little more complex.
ch 1= left front
ch 2=right front
ch 3 = left rear
ch 4= right rear

mix one.
ch 1 and ch 2 mixed equally into the left (or right) stick at +100%
ch 3 and ch 4 mixed equally into the right (or left) stick at +100%

mix two (your rotational steering)
ch 1 and ch 2 mixed opposite into a stick. ie ch1 100% expo and ch2 -100% expo
repeat for rear.

this is the easiest way that i can think of to mix it all up. you could tie your left side and right side esc's onto one channel as well, but you would lose your tank steer. if you have enough mixing slots tie the two throttles together for mix one, and seperate them on the sticks for mix two

if you have a 4 slot mixing capability, you could tie all the servos together for mix two, and just control the toe in with a dial


what TX are you using? its gonna need more than single slot mixing to accomplish this.

Oh ****! I think I just went cross eyed!

[Kev808]

Originally Posted by FrankyRizzo

Oh ****! I think I just went cross eyed!

[Got Rocks?]

good idea just like the jeep hurricane

[hacked_hummer]

that thing is so sick I saw it at a car show in carmel, ca (my home town) last weekend the way they have the drive train setup is awsome, there where a bunch of rich f@gs saying stupid sh_t about it. sorry for getting off topic please continue.

[Rikpal]

First I have to say I'm NOT building a rig following this idea, well at least not yet
I'm just playing with ideas and discussions ;)

Sparko: it's illegal to use foreign boxes here

Johnrobholmes: I'm using an Hitec optic 6. I have two complete programmable mixing option on it plus the factory made ones. I haven't check it out yet, but I'm almost sure there are enough mix. Maybe They won't work in the same time tho

Anyway I was thinking the same thing about the throttle control, but I could set up a mix to have both ESC on a single stick when needed.

Your Steering suggested setup could be the one, but I was thinking about something a little bit easier that won't require mixxing.
This should work on a 4ch even.
Left stick controls both Left wheels.
Right stick control both Right wheels.

2 sticks in the same direction = standard steering,
opposite direction = rotational steering.
Of course I'll loose the indipendent axle steering feature.

TwistedXT: Congratulation You got it. It is a shower shelf.
You won a dot, here you are "." ;)

Slugzracing: Thanks man My second job is at the the Nasa

[Trike Kid]

Originally Posted by FrankyRizzo

Oh ****! I think I just went cross eyed!

you too huh,