Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

Totally... and proud of it.

Are there people out there who don't geek out over stuff like this? Weirdos...

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

Arthur Ganson has a sculpture at the MIT museum called "Machine In Concrete" that consists of a 12-stage geartrain, where each stage reduces the speed of rotation by a factor of 50. The left end is spinning furiously at around 200 rpm; the right end is embedded in a concrete block. The end in the concrete makes one revolution every 2 trillion years or so.

Here is a partial picture of the machine from Ganson's own website:
http://www.arthurganson.com/pages/sc...te%20page.html

But to really appreciate it, you can see a video of the sculpture (and Ganson's comments about it) at the 8:30 mark in this video from the 2004 TED conference:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/a...sculpture.html

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

I have always wondered how fast you would need to spin something for it to spontaniously combust.... care to give it a try??:p :p :p

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

Along these same lines anyone care to predict what the lifespan of a vex motor constantly running would be?

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

I don't know the answer, but we're certainly thinking about doing the same thing :)

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

Thanks to senior Petra Hartman LMHS now has its own version of the JVN High Reduction Gearbox to teach gear theory to 1712 members and students in the Engineering Design classes. Woot!

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/33863?
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/33864?

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

This gearbox was on display in the 148 pit in Atlanta this year. I noticed quite a few people playing with it.

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

I spent a few minutes playing with it, and trying to explain it's coolness to some parents, they didn't share my enthusiasm for it.

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

i think it would be fun to make one of these gear reduction towers and make it turn once every 42 days... the 42 days is completely an arbitrary number :)

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

John -

In the spirit of absurdly high gear reductions, maybe next year you should put something like this on your drivetrain as soon as it is constructed. Paired with a ratcheting rectifier, you can make yourself a pretty nifty odometer. I've always been curious to know precisely how many miles a 148 robot travels in the course of build, practice, and competition...

Re: pic: VEX High Reduction Gearbox
 

Apparently there are others outside the realm of FIRST that geek out about this too.


http://jalopnik.com/5302043/on-the-p...-transmissions

"Artist Arthur Ganson's creation called "Machine with Concrete" provides a beautiful illustration of the power of a transmission. Should you input only 1 lb-ft of torque, the other end could deliver 244 quintillion lb-ft.

Ganson's piece demonstrates the unbelievable power which can be generated through simple gear reduction. It uses an electric motor turning at a modest 200 RPM and mates it to 12 identical sets of 1/50th gear reducers for a total reduction of 1/244,140,625,000,000,000,000. Of course no material in the universe could actually deliver that kind of power without shattering into pieces and even if such materials existed, turning only one rotation at that speed would take over two trillion years. It turns so slowly that embedding the final drive in concrete will have no appreciable effect — ever. The universe itself is only about 10 billion years old, and in another 10 billion years the sun will expand into a red giant and consume the Earth anyway, the final drive having complete only 0.5% of one rotation."


My emphasis added to my favorite part.