[Saber Robotics]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Get more motors. Break them instead of your 4 second minibot. You can't learn anything without breaking some stuff.

Inside you'll find four gears. Most of them match up with the others easily - that is, they (almost) all have the same "pitch". So, no need to buy more gears.

Play around with them for a while, figure out the output gear ratios for different combinations that can work, and write them down. (Note that the 'height' of the gears might not be right, sometimes you need to make spacers for the gears to get them the right height. The gear on the output shaft might need to be pressed off and you'll have to figure out how to hold it on at a different spot)

Then do the same for the tetrix gears and wheel combinations, then calculate the 'motor to wheel' gear ratios.

Pick a bunch of them - one at each end, a couple in the middle - to try out, see which works best. Keep careful notes of everything you do. Once you have the 'best', try more ratios that are closer to the 'best', and find the 'new best'. repeat until you have the best of the best, and build your minibot.

Does this process make sense to you? Of course, you need to do perhaps ten of these 'experiments' a day. Try to keep the weight of the frame of the minibot the same, make a switch system to start and stop it automatically, use a fresh battery every 4-5 runs, all to eliminate any variables that could fool you.

Good Luck.

Now that helps a lot! Thanks so much and I believe in my minibot team to figure it out.