Quote:
Originally Posted by sanddrag
Also, the gear-heads have internal frictional inefficiencies, which is basically robbing the mini bot of power. Think of it this way. Would you put 20W50 oil made for a diesel truck into a sport bike? Would you drive a Corvette with half the spark plug wires removed?
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I think a better analogy would be, would you put an overdrive transmission in a car, instead of changing the rearend gear ratio and making low gear in the transmission a steeper ratio? One way has two sets of gears working against each other when cruising down the highway, the other makes the transmission act like a straight thru shaft.
oh....yeah...the first way is how all modern cars work...ok, forget that idea.
Anways, back to the topic, the physics of it is not really the problem. It's the building of it. FTC is an "erector set" type of thing, where the normal design method is to start screwing kit parts together, and see how it works.
FRC is completely different, you know going in that you're gonna have to design and fabricate parts to make something work at all.
I think there are some teams who look at the minibot as an FTC thing, and other teams who look at it as an FRC thing. The FTC mentality leaves the stock gearboxes on, and the minibot is big and heavy and slow. The FRC mentality starts with just the essential parts (motors and battery), and builds up from there as needed to make it work.
But thanks for the lesson, I hope teams will work to understand and implement it.