Giving a Little to Get a Little
 

Dr. Joe,

Everything you said is true, but if you are willing to give up the constraint of keeping the motor running exactly at a specific desired point, then the planetary setup is viable. I admit that there is a lot of testing and compensating involved, but I have a lot of data so far and am really close to getting it to work as I have predicted. My biggest obstacle is pushing my way through P-basic (I am, afterall, a mechanical guy) to get the control system to do what I want.

Team 5 used the speed changers that came with the drill motors. It worked ok, but our main problem was getting that main hit in-between speed and power. On "Low-Gear" we could pull both goals filled up and balance with no problem, but our tank traks didn't have enough friction to get up the ramp. We had no problem turning with them in low gear. When we went in to "High-Gear" our robot couldn't turn it's self, just go straight very, very fast. (Well, we could turn, but mabye at 15 degrees at a time, after that, we poped breakers!) So, this up comming year, if we can get some $$money$$, we will try to design a nice gear ratio for both sides of the equasion...