Quote:
|
1) You have to check that the torque is available to accelerate the mass of the machine from a standing start at the chosen drive ratio (diameter). Otherwise your bot just sits on the launch pad and smokes. This calculation should be fairly easy, though.
|
The highest torque output is at stall, not at max power. So if you have enough torque to maintain a speed of V at max power, the torque only gets higher as the speed decreases. So it's not a question of enough torque. It's a question of will the motor overheat. And you can't calculate that from the published motor data.
Quote:
|
2) The rate of acceleration must be taken into consideration if you want to (and you should) optimize elapsed time rather than simply a top speed there may not be time/distance to reach. Improved acceleration from a smaller shaft trades off against reductions in top speed. This is a somewhat harder problem, but certainly solvable
|
You read my mind. It's on my to-do list. Just haven't gotten to it yet. I suspect however that the accuracy of such a calculation will be driven largely by unknown factors like friction, motor tolerances, tire slip ratio (especially with compliant material such as surgical tubing), battery condition, etc.
Quote:
|
As a practical matter other factors argue for a far more conservative value than this optimization would give anyway.
|
Other factors like those listed above, or did you have others in mind?