How to make a winch release freely?
 

We're a rookie team and are planning to use a winch for the purpose of pulling back our launching arm. We've little experience with all this, so we're having some issues trying to figure out how to make it so that when we finally want to fire, the winch can turn freely without being hindered by the motor that pulled the arm back. We plan on using a high torque motor that turns slowly, though I don't recall the name. It came with our kit.

I've read some posts about getting a gearbox to shift to neutral, among other such ideas, but have no idea if any of them would really work. Could anyone help me? If so, thank you so much! :)

Re: How to make a winch release freely?
 

I'm no mechie, so I can't give you my opinion on what would work best, but I did see a video from robot in 3 days which went over how they operated the winch on the robot they designed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx3I2...re=c4-overview

That's one way of doing it at least.

Re: How to make a winch release freely?
 

This should help. They used a lunch box I believe to house their shiftering mechanism where it is put into a neutral (free spin) mode then engaged back into a winch back mode. You can do this with any of the shifting transmissions, some are just easier than others. If your looking to buy one, I would recommend the andymark gen 1 shifter. I think they are in stock again but im not 100% sure.

But to answer your question, yes the method will work if done right. Also, take into account the tension on that dog gear to release from the winching mode after you have pulled back your arm, reason behind Ri3d 1.0 using a longer arm (lever) to actuate it into neutral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx3I2_CYeGs

Hope this helps! :)

Re: How to make a winch release freely?
 

Thank you so much! The video's a bit confusing for me but I'm sure me and my team can figure the details out tomorrow. :)

Re: How to make a winch release freely?
 

Thanks! By the andymark gen 1 shifter, do you mean this:

http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-0001.htm

?

Re: How to make a winch release freely?
 

If you cannot get a 2 speed winch to work as you want it to, consider other methods of releasing the catapult. You could have a winch to pull it back but something else (a lock) that holds the catapult back while you unwind the winch to the desired hard stop length. There are other ideas too, but that is just one.

-Keegan H

Re: How to make a winch release freely?
 

For team 4265's winching mechanism we handled the backdriving issue basically the same way one of the ri3d teams did. We had a two-speed transmission, and on one of them it was simply neutral and the other was the drive, and on the drive we stuck a ratcheting wrench in there.