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Unread 08-04-2013, 00:59
Dragonslayerend Dragonslayerend is offline
DuncanDynamics lead programmer
AKA: Tom Xiong
FRC #3970 (DuncanDynamics)
Team Role: Programmer
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Fresno, CA, Duncanpoly Tech
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Re: High speed Drivetrains

Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenB View Post
Elite teams do not just drive fast, they are fast at everything. Why? Because there is only 2:15 in the match to score points. Elite teams put in the design work to get the most out of every motor and mechanism they put on their robot. Most of us are content to get the motor to drive the mechanism at all, but elite teams do the math to figure out what designs and gear/pulley ratios will actually squeeze the most performance out of the motors they have.

The idea that a slow robot has more pushing power than a fast robot is not fully correct. If you have six motors on your drive and wheels with normal-ish friction, you can build a single-speed traction-limited drivetrain that still goes really fast. You should always build things to be as fast as possible (but no faster).
Oh The year I'm talking about is 2013. I noticed that many teams were using mini toughbox with 10:1 gear ratio but extremely slower(like 6 fps) than our 8:1 geared robot(which runs at 12fps). I was wondering how such issues happen. Or whether it was actually planned to be a defensive robot. Actual design goals of teams are what I'm looking for. What was the intent your team had for a drive train and what was the result?