3D Printed Snowcat on Sand - Will it Survive?
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- čas přidán 20. 11. 2021
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If you design a cool body for the snowcat I'll print it and use it in my videos: www.kickstarter.com/projects/...
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"I brought it out here to the sand dunes to test it out" - do you literally live in a Minecraft world? It seems you live near every type of biome there is.
Ikr
Same
The PNW is awesome like that
This is why I love Washington. The desert is only 3 hours away over the mountains.
Virginia is minecraft
Mechanical engineers here.
The pinion gear needs to be made of a metal harder/tougher than that of the bigger gear.
The reason is, the pinion gear goes through more wear/stress/strain cycles than the bigger gear because it does a lot more revolutions.
Your pinion gear should have been made with the material of those printed gears, and the bigger gears should have been made of brass. Brass is a relative simple material to machine and way less expensive.
Also it wouldn't hurt to "run in" the mechanical transmission first with no load, for about 10 full min or 30min if you want to be absolutely sure the gears come the their nominal geometry and engagement.
I am not trying to be annoying or anything, i just want to help out.
To sum up:
Pinion gear material > Bigger gear material. (hardness/toughness)
Run the transmission for 10 min with no lube at half the max speed.
Finally clean everything and lube up.
Edit: (try using prime numbers of teeth for each gear, so they do not developed a wear pattern that could result in one or more teeth to fail sooner than the rest). Cheers.
Not a mechanical engineer but a huge nerd and I would've said the same thing. I was gonna build an rc tracked mower years ago and it was gonna cost me too much, for that reason, that and getting tracks for something the size of mower..
the tip with the prime numbers wouldn have come to my mind, but is obvios if you think about it. bc, every (big gear teeth number x small gear teeth number) lowest common devider turns it will start a new cycle and with that you get a wear pattern...
Dunno bout high stress situation, but my telescope mount smaller warm gerar is brass while bigger load carrying gear is some kind of steel
@@AndrewShaidurov Telescope axes don't really move much compared to the running gear of this thing. :)
@@NZobservatory unless it's looking at something *really* interesting
10:02 i saw alot of breathtaking mechanisms on this channel, but this one is top engineering masterpirce xD
Should mount one of those small electric snow shovels on the front.
imagine setting that to automatically go out and shovel your driveway based on weather or camera data hahaha. if it kept going automatically, it wouldnt have to worry about the size of the drift
what for? as a hand brake?
@@freelectron2029 snow-drift...oh dear hahah
@@MagivaIT you dont seem to understand newtonian physics.
@@freelectron2029 why do you feel the need to make assumptions. having a bit of fun doesnt demostrate my knowledge. remember to be kind eh
Popsicle stick on the transmitter stick for inactivity was peak engineering
I did something like that to keep my minecraft server from logging off. I put my wireless mouse on a window A.C. that vibrates just enough to get the mouse to move a bit.
14:44 it would be cool for someone to program this thing to balance standing up like that! Maybe even pop it up to get over an obstacle like a curb
Should be doable. There's a range of New Bright monster trucks that can do this, impressive for a toy RC (especially from New Bright)
I have a cheap chinesium RC car that can do that. It’s pretty cool for the first 2 minutes until it stops being able to balance because batteries don’t have enough juice.
Imagine seeing one of these with solar or something lost in the desert roaming around for like a decade
That would be sick
that sounds like a good project. an autonomous one with some kind of GPS cross the Sahara or something- charge in the day, drive at night. kinda like that rc solar boat that one time.
basicly mars rovers
Protecting against the sand and dirt is a really good idea. Sand is mostly silicon oxide which is VERY hard, it is harder than any metal. Your gears stand zero chance against sand.
One possibility is to have rubber seals around your protruding shafts (like the ones used to protect wheel hub bearings or transmissions on cars or hydraulic wipers).
And for tracks maybe add O rings to prevent sand and water getting into joints, hence you can dry lube them if it can be properly sealed and least prevent wear longer like O ring motorbike chains are designed.
Honestly just high temp hot glue around the case would really solve it if anyone is that worried and doesn't like tape lol. Could even still open it as it wouldn't permanently fuse most likely. There's a variety of options.
@@hi_tech_reptiles this will work to seal the case, but I suspect hot glue won't work around rotating parts.
This is the sort of Quality Control Testing that I feel products today severely lack.
Sadly
Depends on what industry and which clients :D
We do test about 50 times more
@@executormmm What industry are you in?
You know they spend more time to engineer timed obsolescence then it would take to engineer something not to break right? Well I guess you don't. They want you buy it again. Then again and maybe even again. The "quality control testing" is to make sure its going to fail in a timely manner. If it takes to long they lose out on money.
@@SW-zu7ve The next time you want to make a condescending comment to a stranger, can you at least take twenty seconds to proofread what you've written? Evidently your comments are lacking in quality control. 🤣
This man puts more thought and efford in proof testing than several multinationals.
And twice as much as some videogame companies...
The songs really add to the production value, keep em coming
6:58 - RE: sand in steel gears - have you heard of sandpaper? it's quite effective at wearing down steel.
“I made gears from tool steel”
“Gears were hard to tap and I broke tap.”
You don’t say…. Lol! 😄
A2/d2 tool steel isnt that hard to tap. I think the hole diameter wasn't the right size and plus he didn't have a tap guide. I never tap a hole without having some sort of guide
@@austinshupe9626 Tool steel is not intended for gears bruh. And I’m assuming he understands taps require a specific drill size.
@@StubProductions you can use any material to make gears, tool steel is great cause of its wear resistant properties and its hardness. Im sure he understands drill sizes for taps but idk if he understands tolerances for threaded holes. His tap clearly wasn't straight with the hole and thats 100% why it broke
@@austinshupe9626 Tool steel is not good for gears. Most gears are heat treated high carbon steel…. Not a tool steel which is very strong but brittle. Tool steel is for…. Tools! Lol! Like taps! 😄
@@StubProductions To my knowledge most steel gears are either case hardened low carbon steel (e.g. 1018 or for higher strength 8620) or medium carbon (like 1045 or 4140) with induction or flame hardened teeth. It's usually desirable to have a softer, tougher core inside the gear, with the teeth being hardened to prevent fatigue failure.
In this case, it's not clear what steel was actually used (A2 is different from D2), and neither is it clear what heat treatment it received. Markforged advertises heat treatment to 55 HRC for D2, which would be sufficient to destroy any tool made of steel (even high speed steel) in short order. D2 in the annealed condition (i.e. no heat treatment) is still around 255 brinell hardness, which is tough going for a cheap carbon steel tap (I've tapped 4140HT with one- similar hardness, and it was not a pleasant experience) but well within the abilities of a tap made of HSS.
@1:43 A 3D-printed part should hold water. If _sand_ is getting through the gaps in your layer lines, you have some serious under-extrusion issues (likely because you are asking too much of the hotend/extruder.) You can solve this by reducing extruder throughput via slower feed rates and/or smaller layer heights. 100 mm/s x 0.6 mm line width x 0.2 mm layer height = 12 mm^3/s is about where my Ender 3 V2 maxes out on PLA. If you are below this, tuning e-steps is the likely solution.
Vacuum-formed chassis halves look excellent 👍
9:07 & 10:15 This is like those cartoons when the character is thinking & walking in circles until a ring is forming in the floor :D
This is crazy cool.
I was one of the people who asked for sand performance (even though I'm not in on the KS-backing).
I'm looking forward to seeing this fully finished with a rack on top for mounting cameras and other stuff.
If you really want to seal up the axle holes in the body, maybe you can try out something like the principle from RC boats and submarines.
As far as I can tell, it's basically grease inside a pipe where the axle runs through - and a fine tolerance between the internal diameter of the pipe and the axle.
New idea for water use!: PONTOON WINGS! (Or maybe skis...)
If you can have the bottom half or so of the tracks submerged while keeping the top out of the water the tracks can provide the traction for using it as a boat of some sorts.
I'm so glad companies are finally recognizing your talent and have started throwing product your way. Congrats!
Song at the end is epic. Had to replay it. "Download all those big-ole STL files, I'm sure it will give you a big big smileeeeeee....."Don't spend your money on dronessss.... buy a SNOWCAT instead!" lololol
Mechatronic engineer here, I loved your scientific testing approach to fatigue/durability testing! You just earned a new sub!
I can't wait to get my kit!
A question, though... I've only ever done Aerial RC. Will I need to buy a ground vehicle radio, or will the flight radio work for this?
Flight radio with an elevon mix is preferred
@@rctestflight Will we able to use our own RX system? Like Tracer/Crossfire, Frsky, ect.
@@ChainsawFPV you would need a flight controller as a go between
@@ChainsawFPV no don't use a flight controller get a receiver with servo outputs easy as pi
I'm really impressed with how much prototyping and testing you have done, great job! OK speaking of bodies and long range FPV missions, you should take a look at the original "Lost In Space" Chariot tracked exploration vehicle. It's probably a little top heavy, but it wold be really cool to see.
One of the strengths of this platform is it having no "Top/Bottom" architecture. It flips over and simply continues hauling @$$. Having a Gimbal mounted front/rear camera system would be great for FPV through the clear shell, especially if a proper window were created for it to rest/rotate within. Don't think "What can I put on top of this?" Think, "what can I put inside of this?"
I love this series man. The continued quality improvements based on problems, and feedback from the community. I wonder if we could pay extra time get a complete build kit if we dont have the resources to finish it at home. I'm glad I donated
I know I'm late to the game here....
But for sealing the axles.... instead of using tape, here's something I learned from playing with my RC cars in Kuwait....(tons of ultra fine sand....)
Moleskin. It's usually used on your feet for bunions and sore spots....
It's cheap. It comes with a sticky side. It's easy to cut. It's soft so it won't wear the shafts. And it's slightly stretchy.... so you can cut a small hole and the flex it over the shaft.
I used it to see my transmission outputs, differential outputs and driveshaft openings on my 4wd RC cars. It worked extremely well on both my electric and gas cars.
Sand is basically snow exept it destroys bearings and doesn't melt
I mentioned this in your other video, it is probably too late for this version, but you had an issue with clumping in the snow. Snowcats have more space between the treads, this lets the snow fall out as it rotates around easier. If you can replicate that somehow it should help, and I don't think traction will be effected negatively.
A beautiful example of modern research/design-build/test/improve!!! Wow! Testing 3D printed parts, replacing those that don't hold up with metal parts copied from the slicer output, until the project is optimized. This is an elegant path allowing makers to get to their ideal design relatively quickly. Thanks for this production!
I'm glad to see more hardware co's showing up to help.
Such an awesome project Daniel.
Each time you mentioned "At Cost" I was thinking.. How is he managing to do this..
When you finally hit us with the " this is Capitalism baby ! " it made me smile.
You've been working hard ! Definitely get paid for it !
This project has been amazing to follow! Winter has just arrived here and would def like one of these.
As a kid I had an R/C car called the Ricochet (made by Tyco I believe) that could flip over and keep driving like this, except it had large inflatable wheels rather than tracks and wasn't nearly as awesome. I really enjoyed that thing. I'm excited to see some of those long FPV adventures in the mountains.
prior to the Ricochet, tyco had the rebound. that was the orignal as far as i know. thing was an absolute tank, i had one in the 90s and it would scream and stop on a dime
As always - interesting subject matter, well presented, and with some very VERY good footage. Thanks.
With the lifetime circle test, it would be interesting if you had a camera set at an spot just outside the circle that would take a picture of the vehicle each time it passed, always at about the exact same spot, and then put it together into a timelapse later.
Love this project! If you end up putting FPV gear on consider using a 3 axis gimbal to stabilize the camera. Also it'll take care of the pan and tilt functions. I've had good results with the storm32 brushless gimbal controller. Lots of fun! Cheers, will be keeping an eye on this project for sure, tanks are just too fun.
Amazing. Bro! Your dedication is inspiring
It reminds me of the Tyco RC Rebound, but the tracks are a really cool upgrade. To seal against sand I would add some brushes or soft sponge/foam around the axle holes. Another option is a labyrinth seal.
Might be a good idea to have some kind of clamshell gearbox covers which go under the main body to provide a solid dust & moisture seal using large o-rings or some gasket sealant. That way you can lubricate the gearbox internals which should make it quieter and last practically forever.
Build a remote control beach cart that can carry all your chairs/cooler/etc.
Something that needs saying. I'm not an engineer. I barely know how to spell it. I love to know how things work, and love to see the hard work, and to feel like I know the person who makes cool things work.
My point is. This snow cat could be 3 out of 5 stars average review, but it would sell better than a 4 out of 5 made by someone else that made a better product. Why?
Brand, community, and communication. Most of all. He has been making these videos, and getting to know these like minded people. He will continue to get the support as long as his community feels like they are a part of something.
You are doing such a good job at this. You have a great community of people here on CZcams. I love the support you all have for each other. I don't understand most of the comments here about the inner workings of things, but the passion is here. Love it.
Why do I bring this up? Other brands need to do this. People will buy and support a brand, company, and product if they feel that the passion is to just make cool stuff work using math and physics. People want to feel connected to the people making the product. See the effort put in. The failures and accomplishments. This is what a brand needs to show its target customer. Really a customer doesn't want to feel like a customer. More like a part of a team.
Yeah, I'll get off my soap box. Don't know where that came from really. Just see the passion here I guess. Would love to see other brands do what's being done here. Much love to you all. Happy holidays everyone.
OMG! the popsicle stick on the remote! 🤣
When I first started watching this series I thought, this is so amazing! but felt sad, because i didn't own a 3D printer and wouldn't be able to print the rest of the parts required. But it turns out i recently purchased an Ender 3 v2, so who knows, maybe i can buy one of the kits when they become available.
For anyone else with this issue, new customers can actually get an ender 3 pro (slight step down from the v2) for $100 at Microcenter rn last I checked (or "new" customers if you have a burner phone number and email to satisfy their system ;)
This track seems to kick up a lot of sand, you can even see it scooping and tossing some on each track paddle. Would be interesting to know how more efficient it would be if the rear wheels were smaller that the middle set so the track sort of tapers off. In theory it should pull the paddles out more gradually instead of scooping up sand.
you make some of the coolest things i’ve wanted to make forever. thanks for your videos!
How many 3D printers do you wanna feature in one video?
Daniel: Yes
Wouldn't be to hard to automate it, also run a pvc pipe to the house so you can plug it in (use low voltage, don't run an ac power lead)
If you have a server use that to control it with an esp8266
Other wise you could use a clock chip with an Arduino
Also have it speed up and slow down at times, as well as sprint laps, can add sensors all over it if you want and log temperatures
For the axle seal I would suggest maybe a actual automotive style axle seal or a tpu rubber printable seal where the axles are and H gasket for the larger sections with some overlap built into the printed gasket and some caulk to fill in the gaps to create a water tight seal. As far as the battery charging connection you could use a flange mount connector with a gasket or a cable with a waterproof cable grip. Also If you are able to seal the entire interior of the gearboxes then a perfect seal on the covers won't be necessary and you can easily use oil or grease as a lubricant without worrying about leaking or ingress of contaminats. You could probably even install a grease zirk so it can be lubricated without disassembly. If you were able to get a good enough seal I bet this would have just about enough volume of air to even drive on water for short distances and for sure keep the water out when going through snow. Lastly I know you already have the mold but I personally would have looked into a mold for making a continuous rubber tread which would keep tension with the elasticity of the rubber and be one piece making assembly easier.
Nice project and test plan!
There is something so satisfying about the lifespan test and waypoint runs, idk why
What about something like Felt bushings that could be placed between the axle holes to keep sand and dirt out? Yes I mean they would have to be changed out now and then and perhaps after every use or cleaned afterwards. It Might work though?
Are you maybe interested at some point in the future to produce a full kit or even maybe an ARTR that won't require any printing I don't have 3D printing capability but definitely something I would be interested in.
Look at the Ender 3 mate, its awesome
Your time should be considered a cost. This is the hardest thing for many entrepreneur-types to understand and figure into plans. Selling something "at cost" should feed you.
love the clear chassis!
By turning it with the string, have you introduced track scrubbing? I wonder if it would last longer if it was turning naturally. Of course you will always have some scrubbing using that type of skid steering.
I feel like Pantheon Design got skipped over too quickly to appreciate just how incredible their servo drivel ball screw 3D printers are!
Thanks!
I've driven quads in sand for years living here in Oregon. Doesn't matter what you have whether plastic or hardened steel it will get worn out. Sand eats up everything over time. No way around it. Just have to keep extra parts.
Brilliant project I would certainly love to try the kit out 👍👍👍👍
I've also had problems with standoffs breaking on 2d printed parts snapping off. I found that changing the transition from a 90 degree angle to a curve makes a huge difference in the probability of them breaking off.
Yea sharp edges are the "tear here" of mechanical engineering
You've reinvented the stress riser :) Mother nature usually has something to say about abrupt transitions not just in mechanical systems.
@@1boobtube I suspect that combining the stress riser with 3d printing layers (and the fact that you aren't printing solid) makes for a very weak joint between the (normally thin) top layer and the perimiters of the hub. making it curved spreads this out a lot and gives your perimeters a lot more area to bind to.
Would it help to have an extra bearing on each axle and then bearing seats integrated into the polycarbonate body halves? The seat could be in two halves and close around the bearing when the two halves of the shell come together.
Would help keep the sand out for sure.
Might be a bit fiddly to get everything in place to close the shell up but not too bad.
Would be great, but the problem is bearings are expensive and the shell tolerances are pretty loose so it’s hard to get things to fit on it well
I'm not sure
5:27 "You can see just how crazy fast their machine is" *Laughs in Voron 2.4*
Good engineering, good cinematics, great music!
hi love your vids can you make a oil tanker that can carry you ?
tip, start with an old aluminum canoe, they just never die
@@henryfeng840 This would be a pretty cool build...
Wtf? You can print tool steel now? What type of tech printed those? Are they actually as strong as traditional manufacturing techniques?
Markforged. 17-4 printing yeh haha
Definitely not as strong as forged for example but stronger than plastic, something in between. Idk about this one specifically, but there are some 3d printers for steel that will actually have very little bit of plastic in the filament to keep metal flakes together, when the print is finished it will be put in a very hot furnace that will burn the plastic into vapor and fuse the steel together.
I think it's plastic filament with metal flakes in it. You then take the printed part and sinter it, where the plastic will melt away and the steel particles will fuse together.
Not as strong as standard machined steel, but you have all the advantages of 3d printing when it comes to shapes. The parts in the video were most likely made with the technique described above. There's also laser sintering which uses a laser to melt together metal powder layer by layer, but that's basically unaffordable for personal use.
Possibly just a rubber gasket adhered/fastened to the top shell that either over bites or inlays into/onto the bottom shell Then maybe some small circular rubber grommets/washers similar in design to the body gasket you showed us. Super awesome build, really versatile little rig!
Above and beyond as usual. Thank you sir!
Big thanks Morning Brew for my daily news updates! - You can sign up for free here cen.yt/mbrctestflight
hi
Very cool project - I have been printing my own version of track . I have used two spools of filament and 135 hours of printing hopefully it works good .
Entertaining as always, thanks.
It's your party and you can charge what you want, but the kit should be at least 2x cost. You'e put a lot of work into it, and that captures all the costs that you miss along the way. It also puts enough headroom in that you could have a wholesale price that is still profitable if someone like microcenter wants to carry your kit parts.
Its great to see small companies working together :)
I'd love to see more of the rover project! you could make one using this design if you wanted and maybe have it set up permanently somewhere where it can crawl around and take pictures/time-lapses and you could control it remotely, maybe it could have a mode it could go in if you lose contact, and maybe it could even repair simple issues with arms? idk it would be your choices, making the rover how you want and what you'd want it to do but those are a couple of my ideas
Cant wait to see this with a body. A 3d body modeled after a Pistenbully, Prinoth, or Bombardier would be sweet!
Sunday evening treat in the UK. Will enjoy this video with dinner tonight :)
This is super cool. One final test you should do is test the most powerful motor/battery combo you can squeeze into the kit, because you know someone will do that and it'd be good to know where the limits of the parts are
Top props on your build aswell
really interesting project where you are doing
Couple ideas for you! 1, print the steel gears larger than needed by a small fraction and run them in an abrasive tumbler to remove as much of the print line as possible, and second, use camshaft seals for an engine for the axles on the snowcat! There's lots of bearings, seals, joints, etc that are made for cars that would fit various purposes on this prototype and they can be had very very cheap because of mass production!
Got to love the rapid prototyping using different 3D printing methods. :)
And here comes a solid Sunday morning 👍🏻
So much to love about your videos. Plus the music is crazy fun.
In order to seal the gap between the housing and the axle, I suggest using simering. They are often used in agricultural tractors for exactly the same application.
the song at the end is so amazingly good
Great video. So much hard work. Thanks for sharing.
Any tips for printing gears?
The last line got me , cant wait!!
Thank you for doing an ad timer at the bottom more people need to use it
Great work!
3d printers open up so many possibilities for RC enthusiasts.
bloody awedome. was a long road till here but you've come far
rctestflight: "Should crush the sand"
Sanding paper, sandblasting, sanding stones: Are we a joke to you?
Your videos, projects and just overall style is just awesome! Keep it up :)
This is rad. Love your stuff. In the seattle area if you need help testing!
Well-done sir , I have no interest in anything RC but your videos are always crazy entertaining and showing the diversity of new 3d printing technologies... Really amazing how far they have come in such a short time
I want to make an FPV SnowCat!!! After doing some more research I'd love to do an autonomous SnowCat. Sick design brother. Great work!!!!!
A very respectful work!
I like how every single thing gets tested, i like testing of various materials and production methods. Great filming as well!
Want to leave a bit of an advice: to improve torture test it is possible to add weight on top of it. Super simple.
awesome project! looking forward to some solar powered long range fpv missions!
Awesome vid bro!
This would be a perfect base for a high speed RC excavator. So cool.
I knew the metal gears would be noisy, remember 10 years ago hub motor guys changing to all metal gears, the gears were noisy but didn't fail but it then just pushed the stress to the one way bearings which failed, so they weld them shut and the coils in the motor melts and so on, got to the point where the magnets were coming loose.
Love the torture test in the garden, amazing work on the track though, this thing is a great machine and you make amazing videos.
I love this channel so much, always something cool going on
This might be the best sales video ever created.
Thanks for the update on the Snowcat. Looking forward to the finished kit. Our RC club is building a growler track next year and I hope to dominate with the Snowcat 😎😎