Solar Rover #3 - 3D Printed Brushless Gearbox

[@rctestflight]

Check out SimpliSafe’s holiday sale and get 35% off any new system + a free camera by visiting simplisafe.com/rctestflight

[@anguscameron4753]

Hey

[@superdupergrover9857]

Have to say, your add is better than 99% of million+ subscriber channels. In fact, internet historian is the only one that comes to mind.

[@deadeyedsam850]

Wow many miles did the rovers GPS receiver clock for the season? IE. total distance traveled.

[@AlexusMaximusDE]

Simplisafe makes bad products and anyone who relies on them will gain nothing but a false sense of security.

[@AlexusMaximusDE]

@@lightcycler4806 I am aware. That's why I wrote what I wrote.

[@thelivingcat0210]

Rover: *stops to charge* Slugs: it’s free real estate Rover: it’s free lubricant

[@bergonius]

lol

[@jamble7k]

a rover that feeds on slugs

[@MiniLuv-1984]

I think that is called a symbiotic relationship that just emerged by placing a rover doing figure 8's in a grass field.

[@killsalot78]

@@MiniLuv-1984 Technically wouldn't the rover actually be some sort of parasite?

[@BlauerTeeLp]

@@MiniLuv-1984 This is exactly how symbiotic I feel to the world we live in

[@sebastiansosnowski3859]

Rover : "What is my purpose?" rctestflight : "You drive in figure 8"

[@robotman99lolface]

And it culls the slug population for lubricant

[@flatsurfaces1913]

Oh my god

[@whatdoIsayh3re]

​@@robotman99lolface true dat

[@newq]

There's actually a species of slug that was used to lubricate wagon wheels in Scandinavia in the olden days.

[@TheManfet]

Random fact of the day. You always learn something on the internet 😂

[@IanFiebigwi]

Wow! www.researchgate.net/publication/232672151_Black_slugs_Arion_ater_as_grease_A_case_study_of_technical_use_of_gastropods_in_pre-industrial_Sweden

[@johnsherby9130]

History will repeat itself?

[@meliudaj]

They are going back to thier heritage. Lol You can take the slug out of the wheel, but you can't take the wheel out of the slug.

[@forloop7713]

Good old viking days

[@garrettledford1147]

"The gearbox is making a weird noise" "We're running fine again" It's those damn slugs

[@VeeAyyDee]

They lubricated them

[@syncringe1885]

@@belliduradespicio8009 Less flammable though.

[@withered_dragon_head]

"The gearbox is self healing."

[@whatdoIsayh3re]

it is also the grass

[@zxwar1111]

When the slugs take a minute off of work Rover: help I’m dying I need lubricant. Slugs: dammit, Bill get back to work 😅😅😅

[@Everythingandcars]

The dislikes are the slug’s families

[@javierhillier4252]

Yep lol 😆

[@VascoCC95]

Only the ones who survived

[@artisticyeti22]

Lol

[@Tyo-yw9jh]

Rip Dislike count. KZbin must not like giving a voice to slugs…

[@XmungaM]

The rover is actually kinda adorable, chugging along with its bright colored wheels. I would be really curious to see what plants you could grow if you towed a little flower bed behind the rover.

[@james3890]

"many slugs were destroyed in the making of this video"

[@progunerjie291]

na they're just lube its all planned

[@buzzmas8068]

@@progunerjie291 they’re Lube Planned

[@progunerjie291]

@@buzzmas8068 thx

[@yiritiik4771]

More than 1 but less than 4 million

[@Economan66]

The amount of likes in this vid

[@user-mv8rd6pv7h]

imagine living next to that field and a random guy just places an extreme loud rover there which drives day and night

[@metagen77]

Still I would not dare complain, lest he brings out more robot spawn lol

[@gbaker9295]

It sure beats an earth mover making way for development. That was the Unabomber's tipping point

[@492lautaro]

probably why the gps mast got beated up, if i were living next to the field i would've broken it

[@dronefootage2778]

perfect for air rifle practice, he's lucky i didn't live there :D

[@fluppet2350]

I hope he asked for permission on this. If he didn’t I am surprised it’s still there

[@thamghoul5719]

That's awesome that you convinced the slugs to provide much needed lubrication.

[@fire_nugit8549]

Lol that's why it lasted so long

[@javonthegreat6623]

@@fire_nugit8549 yup

[@BlueBenGo]

"This should be a safe video to watch while I eat dinner" Slugs

[@dialupdave6276]

S L U G S

[@cinegraphics]

Because slugs were the only animals that couldn't escape. Even turtle is faster than that.

[@forestreese1704]

"I'm growing mushrooms in my rover"

[@MikeMan21070]

Breaking bad - Fury Road

[@GavinRemme]

maybe they’re magical 🍄

[@MikeMan21070]

@@GavinRemme only one way to find out😂

[@poolec404]

That needs to be a t-shirt.

[@willhaney96]

Nasa has entered the chat

[@siedpe13]

Id recommend going with bicycle wheels and tires, like a 20" or bigger. The significantly larger tire diameter will make it very capable. Going with reliable wheels and getting your drivetrain out of the grass would help with a lot of your issues

[@28th_St_Air]

It’s the Slug-O-Matic rover. The slugs love all the premunched plant goo on the gears. Ps simplisafe isn’t paying you enough. Your adds are awesome.

[@crazzyearl]

Awesome this video series gave me the confidence to create my idea i have had for 10 years. A robot to drive around my fields and scare the deer out. I converted my old fighting robot Bale Spear into the rover. As of yesterday it drove around the field on its own using a PX4 and mission planner. Long way to go but still learning and moving forward.

[@TillmansRogue]

puts literal wings on the trailer... "looks like the wind is effecting the trailer"

[@UnitSe7en]

affecting*

[@brycegman8150]

@@UnitSe7en boi.

[@UnitSe7en]

@@brycegman8150 Got a problem with English, son?

[@brycegman8150]

@@UnitSe7en proper English, yeah

[@loganotto2769]

@@UnitSe7en which is which I was never taught

[@Markfps]

This should be labeled as documentary, what a great job, amazing and very detailed. You're inspiring a lot of engineers out there, thank you

[@stephendoherty1275]

It's a mobile plant smoothie machine - Slugs love it.

[@11Denis11]

It's not just a plant smoothie anymore

[@fredrikhawes3387]

It loves slugs.

[@joesephrodrigues]

yea I was gonna comment that the mashed matter is super attractive to the slugs, its basically a rolling, fragrant chow wagon

[@Infinity-bn1wv]

To death

[@somethingelse4424]

@@joesephrodrigues chow wagon with en suite suicide booth

[@barmetler]

It's so cool to see how the rover almost was its own little ecosystem. Grass seeds growing, little bugs living in the motors, slugs ending their suffering, it's kinda beautiful, isn't it

[@whatdoIsayh3re]

yeah it is a nature rover that kept the slug population in check

[@himarei]

Would have been nice to have a odometer on board so we can know the actual mileage. Next version maybe?

[@stevep8525]

I was wondering the same thing, GPS can't do it? How many miles did it travel?

[@Mansare94]

He could have fed the telemetry back into the arduino to log it but like he said near the end, he's not great at coding.

[@marsrover001]

$9 bike computer. Uses a magnet attached to the wheel and a magnetic sensor to determine wheel revolutions.

[@chknoodle2324]

@@marsrover001 The wheels weren't making good traction with the ground in several shots, I doubt that wheel revolutions would be a good measure of distance travelled.

[@sldkjh]

@@marsrover001 If he would put that on the wheel of the trailer that idea would work. When the bike computer can't handle the small wheel size you could convert it later on to the right distance. On the rover itself it would be asking for trouble when the rover gets stuck and the wheel keeps on spinning.

[@silverbullet126]

Really liking the long term testing :) Looking forward to a 2021 rover :)

[@anthonylaing3897]

For such a long video I can’t believe I wanted more when it was done. Thanks for all the hard work and sharing.

[@jacobdavidcunningham1440]

man these giant prints are awesome 17:55 lmao jank but it works, simple next it needs a basic vision system or slam combined ha "bush avoidance" 23:26 damn look at those thorns ha 24:45 2012 man, magnetic pole is shifting

[@EvertonLeiteC]

The determination of this man is rock solid.

[@simpleinverso8628]

As well as his bank account

[@ramslade]

I'd immediately give up tbh.. I don't have high hopes on myself.

[@builders8117]

That’s what it takes to make a rover

[@alexcrowder1673]

Hopefully he revisits this project. I love the idea.

[@williamdowling7718]

This channel is criminally under subscribed. No matter how much attention and praise you receive as a result of your amazing, well edited, thorough, entertaining, and engineering-heavy videos... It's not enough. I'm endlessly amazed by folks who not only have a mind for engineering... But also the hands on skill and problem solving of fabrication.. But also the ability to conceive, film, and edit entertaining videos of themselves doing the previous two things. Keep up the good work.

[@ISuperfan]

i have loved this series, and i hope you do a version 2.0 for 2021. thanks for the years worth of entertainment.

[@schnellbratpfanne3606]

Yes Please!!!

[@ziocrielo6148]

2.0? We on 3.0 dude. I think you mean 4.0

[@ISuperfan]

@@ziocrielo6148 oh sorry, yes 4.0 please.

[@PKMartin]

2021's rover could include the lawnmower attachment from the previous video, that'll really keep the grass controlled in the figure 8!

[@francispointofview7578]

Tie in a hidden gopro and do a timelapse from the rover with it plugged into your panels to charge

[@loganotto2769]

“I’m growing mushrooms in my rover!” That sounds like a quote from The Martian

[@easternasia8258]

Feels like thats equivalent to human growing weed to its backyard

[@conormcmillan8666]

It would have been amazing to see what the milage covered

[@gator_productions]

Yes

[@protat0]

Agreed

[@ramslade]

Can imagine that over the past months it would've traveled quite far.

[@Tachi778]

This is my favorite series ever! Can't wait for the part 4. Yes I see that it takes long time to make, but it makes it even more interesting.

[@carcomp101]

When your rover gets stuck, it reminds me of the NASA approach.. You need a bigger rover. :)

[@bushramukthar1488]

And a nuclear reactor in the back😁😁

[@shurmurray]

They borrowed this from an American car industry )

[@jyotiradityadeka2905]

@@shurmurray The American car industry

[@shurmurray]

@@jyotiradityadeka2905 mkay (:

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

How big would a rover need to be in order to be immune to the blackberries? What if he used 29" MTB tires? Or even much bigger?

[@funkstrong]

I really hope you revive this when spring comes around. There's something really satisfying in watching the parts you design experience instant real world testing. This should be some sort of engineering competition where everybody gets the electrical components and a few spools of PLA to see how far they can get.

[@Bw40099]

i love this guys content he always does an amazing job on everything

[@daet.4570]

yeah his stuff is always awesome

[@Bw40099]

@@daet.4570 yes i really love his autonomous planes

[@aliasd5423]

Here’s a suggestion, have a couple cameras at one of the way points and when it reaches them take a pic and continue, that way you get a time lapse of one frame at the end of every lap, and you can see it degrade over time

[@zxwar1111]

Good idea I wonder if he could send me blueprints to make this

[@rst6590]

28:05 Now we all know how those Alien Cornfigures are made!!!

[@trulyinfamous]

It's incredible how those 3d printed parts could last months of moving for hours a day.

[@WorldClassPanda]

you should rename this to "slugger chugger #3 - 3D Printed Brushless Slug murderer" edit: name the trailer "the voice of a thousand sacrifices" cuz it sounds horrible and also so many slugs killed

[@SaHaRaSquad]

Sluggy McSlugmush

[@JeffBilkins]

1) is there some kind of self cleaning gear profile that pushes dirt out? 2) it'd be cool to have a flying drone do the daily checks automatically, it could send overview and detail pictures back and maybe interactively post video somewhere.

[@flomojo2u]

What an incredible amount of dedication and persistence! So cool seeing the long-term effects of a self-driving robot on 3D-printed parts.

[@BloodyMobile]

"These gearboxes seem to have self-healing capabilities..." More like 'natural lubrication' capabilities... blerghs I'm also impressive with how resilient that little thing is, and also with the fact that it wasn't being kidnapped in all that time.

[@woutvansteenkiste8464]

Would it be possible to program the rover to, go backwards for a meter when it detects that the rover is stuck

[@console8574]

Well, yes.

[@mikehawk4517]

No, completely impossible. NASA engineers still work on this mystery to this day

[@davidramsayiv]

Very cool! I like the idea of it running non stop. Sounds like a challenge. Like the movie “Speed” where if the rover gose below .0060mph the Rovers!

[@Oceam]

It looks small in the grass but this thing is actually HUGE!

[@Davedarko]

26:09 I wonder if the ground slugs fertilised the much greener looking track :D

[@krammehl]

You can hear in his voice that he developed an emotional attachement to his rover. Kinda cute desu.

[@marklio]

Fun video. I run on the trail by there all the time, and I'm pretty sure I heard that thing a few times late last year. I never thought I'd learn what that noise was from a random youtube video. Cool stuff.

[@thomaskoot4044]

Please don't leave this project! keep improving Greetings form the Netherlands 🇳🇱🌷

[@alexscarbro796]

Have you considered setting up a D-GPS (differential GPS) system. You could mount a regular receiver on a post in the field at a fixed location. Then transmit it’s received position to the rover (maybe via LowRa?). The rover would then compare the known position of the fixed receiver with its reported position. The rover then corrects its own position by that delta.

[@Nifty-Stuff]

Wow, I love EVERYTHING about this video! 3D printing, design, solar, failures, fixes, success. KEEP IT UP!!!!!

[@kurtkurtson9111]

3:28 Tannins in the grass is probably lubricating the cogs. That stuff can cause a train to skid on the tracks as if it was ice. Usually happens when driving/braking on leaves.

[@seffmoney]

I don't know if you think of it as such, but this is one of the coolest art installations ever!

[@fishyerik]

You stumbled upon a great principle for a slug trap, slugs are a big problem in some areas, and something like your rover should be a great way to reduce problematic populations of slugs. I seriously think you should try to make commercial products based on that. It might seem absurdly elaborate, complicated and expensive just to kill slugs, but the rover keeps itself baited, and disposes the killed slugs, and can cover large areas. And, it seems safe for most animals except slugs. The snails are attracted to the grass in the gears, it's easier for them to eat than undamaged grass. Some species are also even attracted to the remains of previously killed snails. A slug rover wouldn't have be actively running for long periods, just enough to keep the gears baited. Just give slugs time to find it, get in it, and then have it move a few meters, or yards, whatever you prefer, and then stop and wait to give some more slugs the chance. That wouldn't need more than a few percent duty cycle, and you wouldn't need a very big solar panel, or big battery pack to have it working 24/7 even without great weather.

[@fuba44]

Oh man this was a fun project, really really hope you will do a new version for 2021.

[@quarteratom]

When it's easier to add a separate microcontroller to flip a switch on the Ardurover than modifying the Ardurover code.

[@leomolloy5067]

you could use the "gates belt drive system" on your next one. they invented really cool cogs that self extract dirt and mud.

[@blahorgaslisk7763]

I was intrigued by the claim of Gates having a new cog design and had to look up Gates belt drive to see what you mean. In short it's using a center ridge on the cogwheel to keep the belt tracking and not slide off. This way there's no need for side walls on the cog wheels which means lower friction and that any dirt can be squeezed out to the side. The design doesn't easily translate to making cogwheels for a gearbox though. You could come close by using the current chevron design but run them "backwards". That way the cogs would first intersect that the point of the chevron and as the wheels turn the contact area would expand out to the sides. That way any slug caught would be squeezed out of the gear. If the gear is run the other way it will tend to pack any dirt towards the center. This might be good if you want the gear to retain lubrication but not to eject bugs and the occasional cow patty.

[@PatrickKQ4HBD]

@@blahorgaslisk7763 so they are crowned like the tires on a bandsaw?

[@hawkinsm2103]

I'm sad to see this project come to an end. And yes I know I'm late, I only just found this channel. I want this series to continue. That rover gave me such determination.

[@haljohnson6947]

next project, a camouflaged quiet version with more logging. You set it on one side of a desert, and see if it comes out the other side a year later.

[@mozkitolife5437]

35:04 "Here's an electrical diagram..." Haha... wait, what? That's spaghetti right there. _next shot_ Oooooh, that's better.

[@lorenzoporciani]

Do you think putting those gears in salt and "cook" them could help with having more resistent parts?

[@danieljenkins4213]

That's exactly what I was thinking about. I was wondering if the powder salt solidification would make those gears tougher.

[@lorenzoporciani]

@@danieljenkins4213 probably not even all of them need to be annealed, I think only the smaller and most stressed gears need the treatment. Also the gearbox cover would probably be better if cut out of something instead of 3d printed and the inside wall and all the junctions should be lubricated with graphite, it's quite easy to find and it's a really good dry lubricant

[@danieljenkins4213]

@@lorenzoporciani I think the problem with any lubricant will be all the stuff going in will scrub it away. The gearbox should be better enclosed if possible, and there was another comment about "self cleaning" teeth which would help tremendously

[@lorenzoporciani]

@@danieljenkins4213 if it has already DRY lubricant things should stick less, also it is better than nothing

[@hunterbear2421]

I think there shouldn't be any salt that would be the lub it gets from the slugs it kills won't help anymore

[@giga-chicken]

Watching this video makes it actually pretty obvious why opportunity died. It's really hard for a robot to work alone for a long time, and there's nobody coming by every few days to rescue it from catastrophic failure.

[@Mr30friends]

Its awesome that something so crudely thrown together manages to work that well. BUT, its kind of a wasted opportunity to not improve the design slightly more before putting it through months and months of testing.

[@poobertop]

When you said that you didn't care to much for the design I thought "Dude, do it right!". Well after all that time and only a few tweaks, it clearly exceeded all of our expectations. There's something about your janky models that gets under my skin a bit but ultimately you achieve what you set out to accomplish a learn so much along the way. Loved this project, nice infinity sign.

[@AllDayBikes]

1:36 When I seen the wheel in your hand, holy shit this is bigger than I thought from the thumbnail.

[@FrankMakesStuff]

I wonder if much of the wear-and-tear came from the skid steer design; every hard turn putting lateral forces on the 3D printed parts. I wonder if two drive wheels in back, with one or two free-wheeling caster wheels up front might improve longevity? Also I wonder if any improvements could be made to the navigational system to get the rover closer to the designated path, without too much variance and over-correcting. Great video!

[@modelrc9500]

Holy crap you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this

[@itsnetts]

Bout' 6 months?

[@michaelprice3031]

Been watching your vids for many years and every video is always a treat! I love how casual your vids are, like documentation for your work, while avoiding begs for subscriptions, likes, etc... Great work! Super cool!

[@nicocorrao6593]

Watching your channel has made me really start to consider going back to school for robotics/mech engineering. This is just so damn awesome. Nice work man!

[@proz71ful19]

Not laughing at you, but the problems that were happening to the rover were hilarious! Awesome project man. I wish I had your fusion skills too!

[@lhotakfpv4113]

Man, this guy must love this project if he did 3 vids on it

[@bikeforever2016]

That machine is amazing. It just kept going and lasted way beyond my expectations. Congratulations on a great job and a cool video. Can't wait for the new project.

[@joedafpv6770]

3d printing gears!! next you'll be making air powered planes!!!

[@bblz9171]

Hmm... Where did I see that before....

[@marc_frank]

hm hm hmm

[@aydwal9051]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[@jesterblackguarde8464]

Tom Stanton already did all the work, so why not!

[@ivanjdrakov1957]

@@bblz9171 Tom Stanton.. Sweet

[@ceciestunpseudooriginal9837]

This things actually reduce noise. This is the fact that you used plastics materials making that noise. You can observe that's in car gears the reverse is with classical gear but others one are specially made with the v shape and on most of the car you can hear the difference between the noise in reverse and the normal noise of a car. Btw it was originally conceived by Citroen that is where the got they symbol.

[@colinhill8427]

I know you are a huge fan of hyperlapses, but can you imagine setting up some sort of timelapse with this rover? that would be cool!

[@noktrnl123]

Thanks. Your content is extremely inspiring. Maybe put a track like a tank between the side wheels and only use two of the drive wheels to run the tracks. I think you could in improve the grip and efficiency. Possibly less amp day draw and able to run off solar more. Thanks again

[@jayzo]

I'm quite surprised at not just how this seems to run perpetually, but also that you've left it outside for days and it hasn't been stolen.

[@RSmerlinRS]

solar rover... that DOUBLES AS A COMPOST BIN! By golly, I think you're on to something XD

[@o-manthehuman7867]

Me through the whole video: MAKE A DAMN HUBCAP

[@thesoupin8or673]

An absolutely incredible addition to this excellent series. Can't wait for more vids on future iterations of this. Hoping for fully enclosed gearboxes, an odometer, and perhaps a more official trailer, I thought it was a nice addition. Also, I will once again advocate for motorboat/sailboat/submarine content, because I loved the autonomous boat vids and I think you could really have fun with that stuff. Love all your content, and can't wait for more!

[@docmeta477]

The amount of noise for such a low speed makes me think that there is some gear grinding going on

[@lowelllogerwell5146]

At about 12:20, I loved the time lapse figure 8 aerial viewS!!! Tres cool!

[@MayankJairaj]

Yes you watched 30+ mins of a smol toy doing circles

[@rewIndustry]

thank you for all this information, um, however, why no telemetry or logging? debugger in me wants to know what your GPS tracking problem is.

[@OZtwo]

Are you planning to add any type of 'AI' to it and see if you can have it figure out how to get unstuck?

[@Mansare94]

He's used an ardupilot for simplicity so I doubt it'd be something he'd try, it'd be interesting though.

[@TFlorian]

Amazing job ! You could have a look on endless screw for better reduction ratio and efficiency

[@tomblack4198]

Pleas do a second try in the summer! Would be awesome 😍

[@SparkieUwU]

12:15 this is beautiful

[@MrCybergladiator]

Good work. This video was awesome, loving this series. What about magnetic drive like in a sealed water pump for a fountain, that might make it easier to keep the gearboxes sealed

[@matthewfallon2288]

you should try to mount the wings to the side of the rover and have them fold in during the night and open during the day. less weight less friction of that trailer.

[@johanfarnestam7652]

Hey! Love your content! So much inspiration... Have you thought about putting a metal detector on your rover, and instead of having the "beep" you could log it and geotag the places for further examination? Running the rover autonomously over a beach with metal detection would be a fun project?

[@o0julek0o]

If you think about it, you definitely could've made something very similar to cow poop. The fungus means fermentation could've started, the finely ground grass is the same thing that'd be in a cow's mouth and then stomach, heat from the motor and movement could've kept the reaction going and I'm sure slug guts added to it somehow too. Dude. You made a cow. It roams, it chews up grass and it smells like cow dung.

[@Chr0nox]

**As you can see, heres the wild Solar rover in its natural habitat doing its routine figure 8's**

[@coregmr]

I really appreciate how much effort you put into this Project, i wonder if a small "debree ejection slot" at the back of the gearbox housing at the fastes spinning gear would make sense, because then it could work all the organics through the gearbox and would be allmost flowing right through it!

[@Nico-the-lupo-driver]

I have never clicked a video faster!!!

[@tommuhlemanjr.3871]

Daniel, you are amazing. I have been following your exploits for many years and I have just been so impressed with your engineering skills and scientific curiosity. I know that some day you will be part of a team flying a spacecraft to Mars and I’ll be able to say I knew you when. Keep working hard and keep these really cool videos coming. Thanks and have a great Christmas.

[@terrywheelock9458]

The drift is in line with the motion of the earth drift! 👀 You need to have an adaptation position fix! 😁

[@EnraEnerato]

Ther are some things I noticed about the drive train desing I don't really understand, or that I recognize as a point of possible failure: I'd have enclosed the geabox and send the torque via a shaft to a smaller gear that's put on the shaft after closing the gearbox, another issue is the lack of spacing/direct 3D printed plastic rubbing on 3D printed plastic, this should be fixable with teflon washers. For the later I would take teh thicker ones, this has them work as distance pieces and gives you a little more room, when the parts "wobble/deform" under stress. The missing space issue can be seen on the orange and turquoise gear wheels, the smaller ones were directly printed on the bigger ones, with metall gears this would be an option, as you'd put a smaller one next to the bigger one on the shaft and that would be it, but if they are one part, having a rounded circulat shape instead of "sharp edges" makes things a little more sturdy/beefy, it also means less room for things to "friction weld" themselves into oblivion. Around 32:48 one can see, that you did this on some gears, but not all of them, I wonder why that was? Anyway, teh shaft feature could extra usefull for the drive gear, you could've put a shaft feature on the output shaft and given it a fitting for a bearing, this also would've sealed your gearbox against debris and it would've been better held in place, resulting in a stifer shaft position. Sliding the drive gear on and fixing it on the shaft would mean that your geabox now has one opening less for gunk to enter, the other one would be where the motor is, this opening could be closed wit a piece of thin rubber or something? As for a bigger plate like cover, simply getting a sheet of teflon and cutting it out surely would be more durable, there are a lot of openings in the geabox I don't understand the nessecity of, some of them I question outright, a prime example would be around 34:37 , where one can see the gears moving between the orange cover and the wheel, this seems like an unnessesary opening?

[@pbpx]

I wish my work had crazy cool carbon parts in the dumpster.

[@gordoncouger9648]

Slugs can be repelled by alternating galvanized metal and copper bands or a couple of parallel bare wires 3/4 inch apart with a 2 or 3 megaohm resistor in series with VCC to one wire and the other to ground should the slugs path should keep them away. Thirty years ago, I worked on prototypes of J1939 CAN networks, systems, and devices not unlike yours that make up some Ag robots today. Work like yours that tests ideas over and over to failure is rare, and I learned a great deal about the durability of herringbone gears that is certainly non-obvious if not for your continual patching up the grass-grinding slug eater and putting it back in the field. You have revived my interest in building a weeding robot. Ardupilot has made things a lot simpler. I've worked on the design of robots to weed crops, yards, pastures, and the problems you had with grass, vines, mud, slugs, clouds, and wind are not that different than the ones John Deere's engineers have to solve. Planetary gears are usually the solution for modern gear reduction in light-duty farm equipment under 100 horsepower. My interest is weed identification, mapping, and eradication. "No weed can survive if cut it off at the ground every Tuesday" - dad Was I building a rover such as yours, I would make it longer and wider so it could be taller and have more ground clearance. I would probably use timing belts on counter shafts or harmonic drives to get the reduction on top of the vehicle and out of the dirt. I would make better seals. I would use rubber crawler tracks to have fewer problems with mud and compaction as I add weight to them. I have been torn for years between using a combination of center pivot and skid steering, as I believe you use, or using crab steering. Something this size doesn't need 4-heel independent steering, but a weeding robot for thirty 40-inch rows sure does when it turns at the end of the row. Turning something 100 feet long around in a turn row and getting back on the row is pretty tough, and is easier to work out on something this size.

[@Rouverius]

Man, why do I feel like I've been watching a documentary on Wall-E's backstory? Great job, lil' Solar Rover!

[@pagani8]

i'm not sure why but this was one of the most interesting diy projects I've ever seen

[@marcluer]

A mars-rover-like "rocker bogie" suspension would be nice for next year´s version ;)

[@kornaros96]

And LiDAR