[Chris Hapstack]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Have you considered putting an idler gear on there and doing one reduction in the spur gear stage? Probably a bit more weight and part count but it would give you some flexibility.

I was thinking about that, but wondered if it would compromise the steering encoder setup. Currently the steering encoder is a VP integrated encoder after the last stage, and the external gears are 1:1, which means the encoder is 1:1 with the wheel. Does that mean you can use the VP encoder as an absolute encoder? I should probably make a point of knowing more about the encoders needed here... If you had such an external reduction, would you need to mount a separate absolute encoder somewhere else?