Quote:
Originally Posted by DonRotolo
I am thinking that two FP motors driving one wheel is the same energy into the ball as one FP driving each wheel
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Not necessarily true. In the fly wheel designs very little of the force is in fact transmitted directly to the balls from the motors. Just look at the torque and how fast that ball gets moving in a short period of time...it just wouldn't make sense. What it really is, is a conservation of momentum. The angular momentum of the wheels is translated to linear and angular momentum of the ball. Therefore, all that matters in terms of how fast the ball goes is the CHANGE in angular momentum of the wheels. A bigger decrease means a faster release. Simply adding another motor to the axle of the wheel at the same reduction will not cause a faster release because the free speed would remain the same. However, what it would do is cut in half the time it takes for the flywheel to get back to full speed because the torque output of the motors doubles. If you want a faster release, you would need to reduce your reduction on the motors, increasing the free speed of the fly wheel and increasing the change in angular momentum of the wheel.
However if you put the motors on separate wheels, then you will get a greater decrease in angular momentum of the wheels because there are now twice as many wheels transferring momentum to the ball. Then you wouldn't have to adjust the reductions and you would increase the release speed. (However, your reload speed would remain the same....trade offs!)