New tread material test

By Lin, Tycho, Max, and Evan

Task: Initial tests for new tread material

The standard Tetrix treads and tread inserts aren't nearly as sturdy as we would like. When they snap it's a real effort to put back together stretched over the idlers, and the inserts peel apart, bringing our traction down. The new material is a rubber conveyor belt material from Andymark, and the underside track chain is 3D printed in nylon to mesh with the track drive gears. Outside: high strength high traction rubber Inside: 3D printed nylon to mesh with gears

Reflections

We first glue the nylon sections to the treads, laying them out flat so that some of the nylon hangs over one end and let them set overnight. The next day we bend it into a loop and glue the overlapping nylon and rubber together, and then let that set overnight. This isn't strong enough alone, so we ended up using the awl (used previously in Cascade Effect's game) to stitch at the boundary between two nylon strips, sort of like a thread staple.

Initial tests showed that this design was a huge step up from the tetrix treads, and we're working to make another to complete the pair. One downside is that this design is a much thicker design, and rubs on the underside of other parts that weren't previously a problem.