pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Care to share some specs, maybe a transmission close-up?

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I'll admit, the "window" gearbox looks kinda cool.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Let's just refer to the quote in my signature.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Reminds me of an idea I once had for a "parallel radial" engine.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

That looks a lot like a duke engine.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Aw, crap. I guess "almost novel" is kind of like "almost pregnant."

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

8 CIM drive?
Can you say "Popped our main breaker"?
Don't worry, you will!

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Actually if teams use the current monitoring properly, a team could maximize the time motors spend in their peak efficiency range (errr, closer to peak at least) and still get large output output torques (less torque per motor, more torque overall).

If done right you'd get a decent performance increase and exactly ride whatever line you set in terms of net current draw.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

That's the biggest "if" I've heard this week.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Not really.

In many industries torque/current control is THE standard form of control.

It wouldn't be crazy to limit max current to some time varying value.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

A large percentage of the three-phase motor controllers I work on in my day job go to customers who use them to limit the peak current during starting, especially if they have high inertia loads such as conveyor belt systems, (down-hole) pumps and rock crushers. All the motor controllers (ours and our competitors) have a "current limit" parameter that the user sets via the keypad.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

That actually looks pretty cool and crazy fun!

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I'll try to get a transmission pic up soon. Its two stage and single speed gearbox, with a roughly 7 to 1 gear ratio(1.8 itcr). On a four inch andymark wheel, it should be traction limited. I thought about designing a custom ball shifting version, but I only spent a couple hours on this design, so I never got around to it.
I don't really disagree, but I find it interesting you would say that without hearing what the final gear ratio is. ;)

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Thanks! :D
Unfortunately, I don't think our team will even be considering this idea because of budget constraints. I think it would be cool to see how this drive would work in real life though. It would certainly save belly pan space! :p

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

It's the V8!

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

You both are correct. The final gear ratio was not stated, and torque limiting over time could be quite advantageous.

That said, with the size of fields we play on and the wheels that are available to us, 6 CIM drive seems to be about the limit of practicality.

Please don't get me wrong, I really like this design both for it's creativity and it's aesthetic. I would love to see how it actually performs. I know with the right final gear ration, you could drive it continuously at full speed without tripping a breaker. The carpet might not like it, but that's not the point of this design. :yikes:

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Looks more like a 4 CIM + 4 mini-CIM, if I'm not mistaken

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Can you comment on what exact gears you would use if you were to make this?

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Dumb question: How would one remove a motor for maintenance, if needed? There doesn't seem to be much access.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

We had 4 CIMs/4 Mini-CIMs on our drivetrain and didn't ever pop the breaker. That being said, we got a little lucky

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I love the outside the box thinking, looks like it was fun to work on!

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I thought the same right when I saw the render but now I'm envisioning some sort of twist-lock being used to hold the motors in place.

I know I'd love to see this in reality.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Just a few questions i guess. It looks like you are using 4 bevel gears.

If you are using 4 would you not be loosing a large amounts of mechanical efficiency?
I love the idea i just think that using that many bevels would be a mistake even though it is a pretty sleek design.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

If you have access to a mill, lathe, indexing head, and pedestal grinder of any size, you can actually make your own bevel gears and regular gears to save a little on costs. Look up "how to make a gear hob". If you have a community college in your area, they might have a machine shop you could use.

Nice design for the gearbox. Looks like it can save on valuable horizontal real estate.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I'd love to see a 2 CIM version so you could have a "V-Twin" or even a 1 CIM that looks like a 1900ish motorcycle engine or model airplane engine. :D

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I actually designed this gearbox with four mounting points for motors, partially so that I could mess around with different motor configurations. :)

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

It sound like an awesome process to learn about. Unfortunately, my team has never had access to a pedestal grinder. :(

Of course there's no time like the present! we just got done building a CNC router on a super tight budget, so I feel like we might be able to make something work. :)

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Just like on any other transmission, each motor has a pinion gear on it, but there is only one large bevel gear on each side of the drive. Because these transmissions only have two stages of reduction, they shouldn't be any less efficient than you average gearbox.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Questions aren't dumb! :)
I didn't put a ton of thought into it, but my first instinct was a ball-end hex wrench.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

I cant say for sure, I already had the CAD for these bevel gears sitting around in my computer. Although, I think the model originally cam from a QTC online catalog, so you could probably buy them there.

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

We've had 6 CIMs/ and 2 mini CIMs,
4 of the CIMs were powering our drive and 2 CIMs + 2 minis were powering out shooter, we have yet to pop a breaker. :)

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

That's not the same as all motors in drive...

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

We also had 2 CIMs on our thrower

Re: pic: Fun Bevel Gearbox Idea
 

Wow! that's a lot of CIMs.

I just realized that over 25 lbs of you robot was made up of CIM motors. :ahh:
At least 21% of you robots mass was CIM motors.