[EricH]

Originally Posted by chrisfl

I was watching one of the Behind The Lines videos which was on drive train design and they discussed modifying a 2-speed shifting gearbox to be one speed and when you shift, the motors run a different system on your robot. This is great for a game where you are either driving or doing another high load/speed task. For example, climbing in games like 2013 and 2010. Has anyone done this before? How effective was it?

Look for "PTO" gearbox in search. Power Take-Off rigs allow the full power of the drivetrain (or half of it) to power something else. They've been used as far back as 2004 (60 and 254 winched themselves up to a bar with a PTO from their drivetrain, as I recall). They can be very, very effective, but only if used properly. For example, you probably never want to be driving at the same time the PTO system is on; you could do some serious damage to your robot!

You could also modify a 2-speed gearbox to be a 3-speed, with the third speed being the PTO.