One of the most important features for making the alternating gear idea work was, to make a wheel, unlike the existing wheels that came in the AEV sample kit, that was instead attached to a shaft and not on a bearing, so that gears attached to the shaft would spin the wheel; however, entirely removing the bearing would allow too much friction between the shaft and the AEV support. So, instead, the idea came to move the bearing to between the support arm and the shaft. This would require a new support arm design.
Here is a model of the first attempt to solve this problem:
As you can see, on the drive wheel, the support arm serves as the outer housing for the bearings, and the shaft holding the wheel and gears serves at the inner housing. This way, the entire shaft can rotate freely; however, a significant issue with this design is its complexity. The part is 3D, and so would need to be 3D printed to manufacture. But, this part has many thin sections and overhangs, making 3D printing undesirable.
Here is a model of a simplified version of the arm:
As you can see here, much of the complexity has been removed from the arm, while still allowing it to serve the same purpose. The arm was split up into multiple parts so that the main arm is flat and can be laser cut. This allows for the arm to stay thin but still strong. The bearing outer housing was reduced to simple circular components with no overhang, parts that can be easily 3D printed.
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