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Unread 11-12-2012, 11:20
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Re: Why not to shift?

Quote:
Originally Posted by pandamonium View Post
All though this is off topic slightly. Our team has triggers and buttons on our controls that are slow mode and turbo mode. No physical shifting required I know it is not the same thing but I am curious as to the benefits between them programming method and the actual shifting method.
Shifting reduces the torque demand on the motors, which brings the motor's top speed and loaded speed closer together. That means a smaller jump in speed when you go from heavily loaded to lightly loaded, which means better control in many situations, such as making small rotation adjustments on a sticky 6-wheel drivetrain.

Simply scaling in programming is never going to achieve this because the problem is in the dynamics of the electromechanical system. Speed or position feedback control of the drivetrain could help with this, if it's tuned well enough, however.

If anyone's interested, I'll add a post with all the math explaining why this is so.
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