September 20 2002
This is the feet design that Heath and I (Alex) have been working on the past few months. We are now building prototypes to start the testing process to see if there are any problems with assembly, maintenance, strength, etc.
One problem that other people were concerned with was the fact that there may be quite a few side forces on the two wheels when R2 is turning around.
There was concern with the chain that there may be quite a bit of noise from the chain when it is being run. Running the motor without any load has shown that there is very little chain noise. The noise from the motor was the loudest thing heard.

jvn01.jpg Here are the two finished feet assemblies jvn02.jpg A second view of the two feet assemblies jvn03.jpg This is a close up of the angle brackets and the butchering I had to do to get the screws in. The problem was due to the fact that the design called for 0.1875" thick material and I used 0.25" thick material. Counter sunk screws will be the order of the day to give a clean finish in areas that people can see. jvn04.jpg Side view showing the open architecture. Sorry fancy terms that mean we hope that maintenance will be easy if needed. Quotes for our initial designs was in the $350 range for a set so we quickly redesign the system to the present configuration. Hopefully it will be a LOT cheaper to manufacture. The two brackets that hole the wheels are slotted to allow for the chain to be tightened. jvn05.jpg The bottom view with the Saturn motor mounted. jvn06.jpg. jvn07.jpg A close up of the wheel bracket. This wheel is custom made by Heath. It was also designed to fit a standard specified wheel jvn08.jpg A close up of the main drive wheel. There may be a fit problem with the screw that holds the adapter shaft to the Saturn motor output shaft. jvn09.jpg A second view. We will have to determine if this is a problem during testing. jvn10.jpg To view showing the tightness of the components. It wasn't always easy to try and fit everything in and have the adjustability we wanted. jvn11.jpg End view of the assembly. Some interference problems with the top of the wheel and the end of the bolts that mount the bracket to the frame. jvn12.jpg The motor bracket jvn13.jpg Another close up view showing the possible problems with the bolt lengths possible hitting the wheel jvn14.jpg This is the other bracket using 0.125" thick angles whereas the previous one had a 0.25" thick angles. I am not confident with the strength of this material and will be using 0.1875" thick material in later versions. jvn15.jpg Top view showing the placement of the bolts. jvn16.jpg The second foot with the countersunk and round heads. jvn17.jpg Side view showing the assembly and the custom wheels that Heath made jvn18.jpg Another bottom view.

The next step will be to mount the feet onto a frame to test the assemblies. This will require making the frame, attaching the feet to the frame, adding the middle foot, wiring up the RC unit, speed controllers and batteries.

Once this is done I will test out the assembly to see how it runs. I will then be adding more and more weight to see how things go. I will be testing to make sure the feet are strong enough and the speed of the assembly.

Hopefully thing will be OK. Stay tuned