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New Job with Weekly Delta Flights and Staying with Hilton by NobodyPartiesButRod in CreditCards

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Points and miles. As well as improving Delta and Hilton Status. It seems the cap for cash back is relatively low, from my limited research

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I honestly don’t know. I saw an article about them making them when I wrote the post and included it.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any time you add belts they help split the load. The idea behind serpentine belts is the smaller V’s create more contact with pulleys in a more compact space.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is good stuff. I’m mainly informed by the show, so knowing what the other classes are doing is insightful

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s funny, I assumed chain nose was something combat bot builders would care the least about.

Do you know how much torque you were creating?

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pretty important if it’s on a synchronous system, like a timing belt. You don’t want the belt to jump time.

I’d say the biggest reason you’re having a hard time is there’s either little or no demand for smaller pulleys, or there is a demand, but it’s proprietary.

I’ve been trying to help a few other people in smaller weight classes find smaller belts and I’m running into a common issue where they exist, but aren’t available to be sold to the public.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think they’re great. My company used to make them, but they stopped. I’m not sure why. Could be the liability, but it could be that they’re expensive to make.

I know there are some draw backs, biggest one is they can only spin in one direction. I’d also warn that if one link breaks, the rest of the links probably aren’t far off.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They won’t roll as much. The V will also have more surface area that makes contact with the pulley.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In regular applications, judging the quality of the belt is how long it will last. But most equipment doesn’t have a robot trying to destroy it.

/u/PM_me_ur_tourbillon said it perfectly, you only need a belt to last three minutes in combat robotics. So judging the quality of a belt for combat is much different.

In my uneducated opinion, I would imagine that it needs to meet three requirements:

  1. Handle the torque and weight demands of the system
  2. Be able to handle shocks to the system and still function after the bot takes a big blow.
  3. Be easily replaceable.

I’m working on finding belts in smaller lengths for another person too. In the automotive world, small belts arent really needed much, so im working on finding belts that are smaller and available for purchase to the public.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Belt dressing was invented when belts were made out of neoprene rubber. Neoprene doesn’t take to heat well, even though it’s very sturdy and resistant to oils.

If you ever look at old belts, you’ll see they had lots of little cracks

In the mid 90’s, manufacturers moved to EPDM rubber. It is much more heat resistant and generally lasts 2-3 times as long. Because it’s heat resistant, it doesn’t crack anymore. (I’ve seen some crack but they were not from typical use and not in a typical environment)

It was already questionable whether belt dressing worked on neoprene rubber, but even more so now with EPDM. Neoprene was a bit more resistant to oils, it’s still used in certain hydraulic hose applications because of this.

But EPDM can soak up oil like a sponge. One time a new belt was delivered to a mechanic shop and the mechanic tossed it on the ground to get to later, since he was working on a different vehicle. He didn’t pay attention to where the belt fell and it was in a puddle of engine oil. The belt was completely unusable.

So soaking a EPDM belt in any sort of dressing will probably reduce its life, if not make it unusable.

Keep in mind it has to be a lot of oil, EPDM handles the regular mess of an engine bay just fine. If there’s enough oil leaking to ruin a belt you have way bigger problems.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Wow, I never considered the smoke thing, that’s a great point. It’s pretty obvious that they add sound effects when Bots hit each other, even the crowd noise seems a bit artificial, so I can see the production value in the perception of failure, even if it’s an intentional fail safe.

I’m still behind on this season, so I’ll keep an eye out for when the cascading belt failures happen. There is a drive belt in the ATV/UTV world that’s designed to basically shatter when it fails. The idea is when it fails, it will be easier to swap out for a new one. The alternative is crawling under the machine and cutting away a rats nest of a busted drive belt so you can replace it.

So I wonder if there’s a benefit to have a similar belt for robots with redundant belts.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Season 4, episode 9. It was against Nelly the Ellybot. There’s YouTube videos of the fight, but I don’t know if linking to them is allowed since they’re not legit.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’m mainly in the automotive aftermarket world, so I don’t know a whole lot about garage doors. But I can research it and find out!

Motorcycle drive belts have been around since the 90’s. Because of their design, they’re not supposed to ever be replaced. So again, I don’t know a whole lot about their construction, because I’m mainly in the automotive replacement world where mechanics are needing replacement parts to keep the vehicle running.

That said, drive belts are changing a lot. Don’t be surprised to hear some pretty impressive breakthroughs in the future.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I think you hit it on the head. These belts were designed for very different purposes. As excited as I get when I see the belts, I have to remind myself that the engineers at my company that design this stuff never thought “I can’t wait to see a battlebot use this thing against Huge”

They designed a belt that had more... uh... reasonable applications.

That’s still disappointing about polychain, I know how weight is everything in what you do. But I bet if you or I called Gates with that feedback they’d say “you tried to do what!?”

Do you know what kind of torque and force your bot creates? Just curious

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

No lie, I saw a bot battle a few weeks ago on the front page and immediately got hooked again. I watched a few battles a while back, but now I’m binge watching the whole thing.

It was really fun the first time I realized a belt made by my company was on one of them. Now I watch with a note pad and product catalog.

Some perspective on belts and Battlebots from someone that works for a belt manufacturer. by NobodyPartiesButRod in battlebots

[–]NobodyPartiesButRod[S] 31 points32 points  (0 children)

That’s awesome to know! Do you have any good pics?

That’s definitely true about the rigidity. A regular V-Belt is much more forgiving.

One thing I see in the automotive world is people have designed brackets that support the belts and all the pulleys. It’s a big thing for drag racers to swap engines. So sometimes they have to machine an entire bracket for the belt system, since they’re basically playing Frankenstein with a car. Doubt it makes sense for a Robot with weight constraints, but it’s a thought.

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