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Unread 05-11-2013, 22:19
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Sparks333 Sparks333 is offline
Robotics Engineer
AKA: Dane B.
FRC #1425 (Wilsonville Robotics)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Feb 2004
Rookie Year: 2003
Location: Wilsonville, Oregon
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Re: Help about motors

Hmmm... A very broad and rather vague question. Let's see what we can do.

Generally speaking, choosing a motor is a balancing act of maximum speed and maximum acceleration, as well as (for most of us mortals) finding a premade gearbox that will allow the performance you desire (you can't just arbitrarily say 'This works best with a 37.4432:1 gear ratio, so I'll go out and find a gearbox that does exactly that).

A few rules of thumb about DC electric motors - Though the spreadsheet shows maximum power, maximum speed, and maximum torque, you won't get all three of those at the same time - max speed is completely unloaded, max torque occurs at stall, and maximum power is (ideally) at half max speed (which also gets you half max torque - torque has a negative linear relationship with speed, with max torque at 0 RPM and 0 torque at max RPM).

Now, choosing a motor for a particular application - that is a tricky one. I'd recommend using Newton's equations of motion to calculate how much torque you want, and at what speed, then choose a gearbox and motor that will put you as close to half-max-speed as possible during normal operation. Keep in mind that what really drives the torque requirement is your robot's mass and the rate at which you'd like it to accelerate. It will be difficult to estimate the losses in most drivetrains, so don't expect that you'll come anywhere close to maximum speed on the motor - there will always be some losses that prevent the motor from reaching zero torque (though in a direct-connect to a shooter wheel, that's a fairly reasonable assumption).

Hope some of this is useful. Selecting motors is a bit of an art form, and a lot of teams have spent a lot of time experimenting to find what works.
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Last edited by Sparks333 : 06-11-2013 at 20:06.