Alternative wheels for Spirit Rover

The more technical aspects of Spirit, and carry-over discussion from Kickstarter updates.
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gpvillamil
Posts: 75
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Alternative wheels for Spirit Rover

Postby gpvillamil » Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:59 pm

I noticed that performance on carpet is quite poor, due to the thin wheels. I designed some alternative wheels, more rover-like, that are designed to provide a greater contact patch, and include ridges to improve traction.

Here are the wheels and some pictures:

To be honest, the performance improvement was marginal. I may need to change the design to increase the contact area further, and make the ridges a zigzag pattern. I also want to add a groove for a rubber o-ring to act as a tire on smooth surfaces. This rover wheel is quite noisy on hard floors.

Any thoughts?

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TomTheWhittler
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Re: Alternative wheels for Spirit Rover

Postby TomTheWhittler » Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:34 pm

Love it.. Too bad we could not make these 2 or 3 inches in diameter to give better surface area but then we would have to re-do motor mounts and such.
Ultimately I want to drive the Spirit Rover around my house remotely so I may have to design up a bigger system to have bigger wheels, hold more batteries, motors, etc..
On the other hand maybe I should just take my dead WowWee's Rovio and convert it.

Rovio.jpg
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gpvillamil
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:03 pm
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Re: Alternative wheels for Spirit Rover

Postby gpvillamil » Fri Feb 16, 2018 4:59 am



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