Friday, January 25, 2013

Versaplanetary CIM/MiniCIM Mounting

Note: For more on this setup go to this CD thread (starts at about post #61). There might be ways to cut off less of the CIM shaft and still only use parts from a Versaplanetary gearbox.

It looks like the VEXpro Versaplanetary has a few more tricks up its sleeve. We didn't expect to find this, but it is a pretty simple conversion to install a CIM or a MiniCIM to the Versaplanetary gearboxes. JVN posted a small note that gave us the idea.

Disclaimer: These are not official directions, your mileage may vary. We haven't even put this under load yet, but it does spin up when you put power to the motor.

 Here is the complete assembly.

The Motor shaft has to be cut to just over a 1/4 inch. This leaves a very small amount of key, but it does seem to work. You could probably make a custom mount plate or double up the motor mounting plate to get slightly more key profile, but we were trying to do this with just one Versaplanetary kit.


 We have to cut a very small 2mm key to make this work.


The Versaplanetary motor mounting plate pilots the CIM motor face perfectly (THANK YOU VEX).
The input stage of the Versaplanetary has an 8mm hole with a 2mm keyway already to go (THANK YOU VEX). The hole is normally where the C-collar for the motor would go.

Assemble the motor into the gearbox input stage.

Using the 7/8 inch 8-32 screw mount the output stage of the gearbox to the CIM. You have to have the input stage off to get the bolt into the motor.


Remember to tighten the setscrew on the input stage.
Then mount the output shaft to the gearbox. Everything just sort of works (THANK YOU VEX).

There are probably better ways to do this, but this setup uses parts available solely from a single Versaplanetary kit and a small piece of 2mm keyway.

7 comments:

  1. The CIM takes a 10-32 and the input block has 4x 8-23 holes. Did you guys drill out the two holes you used to mount the CIM?

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  2. You are correct that the holes are different. The real question is why did we not notice and why does it work with the wrong size screws going into the CIM.

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  3. If you added a spacer plate or maybe a 2nd Versaplanetary motor mounting plate would it become unnecessary to remove the 1/4 inch from the CIM motor?

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  4. I'm not sure, you could try it. We have had a lot of success with this setup. We have been running multiple on our robot all season and they work well. I imagine there are other ways to do it too. Please post your solutions when you find them.

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  5. so what screws are you using, and how? we tried, and the 8/32's hold, but only just. Did you open up the holes for 10/32?

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  6. i shoudl add with the 10/32, they dont line up with the holes in the mini cim, even after we opened up the holes on the motor mounting plate, they dont quite line up. any assistance would be great!

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  7. Kevin, I apologize I thought I had fixed the blog post, we actually use 8-32 screws. They tighten securely into the 10-32 holes on the miniCIM.

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