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Bought a pair of these tiny turnbuckle rods with spherical joints for the 3-link differential mechanism on my rover design. They’re used in RC monster trucks for something. Found via a video of a rover build by a random hobbyist. Internet+capitalism = answer for everything.
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Even found it in red, the color of my design, so I won't have to paint it. The body/frame it will go in will be 3d printed in red PLA. If I hadn't found this, I'd have had to assemble it myself out of ball joints and threaded rods from mcmaster carr...
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I don't recall doing 3d linkage design in undergrad in the kinematics of machinery class. It was all 2d. It was a bitch trying to get some intuition for how the differential on the Mars rover works.
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I *think* it's basically like a cable-stayed bridge, except the "cable" has to be capable of both tension and compression. The "tower" end is just above the pivot point on the rocker-bogie (the side assembly with 3 wheels), while the "bridge" end is attached to connecting rod
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Hypothesis for how this works to be verified with a test mechanism build... it's basically the rover's hip joint, where if one side goes up the other side presses down for traction
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these rods btw are designed with right hand threading on one end and left hand threading on the other, not entirely sure why, but I think it's so you can tighten/loosen it after installation to change tension, by rotating the middle hex section alone
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