[QUOTE/]
If you put a sensor on both shafts, I think you could make a really slick automatic transmission with this gearbox.
When the software figures it's time to shift up to the next higher gear, indicated by high motor speed, the control computer would put the gearbox in neutral, then drop the motor speed down so that the input shaft speed, as measured by the period between sensor input triggers on the input shaft, matches the period measured on the output shaft, adjusted for the gear ratio of the next desired gear. At this motor speed the desired input/output gears are spinning at exactly the same speed. Then the contoller would shift to the desired gear, the balls pop into place on the output gear, and the controller applies power to the motor, accelerating away in the higher gear. A similar sequence can be used to down-shift, where the motor speed is increased while in neutral to match gear speeds. The system would work like a sensor-controlled synchromesh. (I would call is "automatic sensor synchromesh" if not for the unfortunate acronym
. Maybe "sensor controlled synchro - SCS would be a better term.)
In any case, this would be a neat project to work on. Any chance of getting some more details?[/quote]
This would seem feasable, but we do not have a neutral postion between gears with our pneumatic positioning. We could use a simple current sensor or two and a staement in the program that would be something like "if amps are greater than or equal to 35, shift down to next gear; if amps are less than or equal to 5 amps shift up to next gear " I know that is not how it would look in the code because i do not know C or any language for that matter. But it is the basic idea. And i think it is atainable with any shift on the fly tranny and a bit of testing.
Sorry for the misplellings i am not the greatest with techinical terms and such.
-Henry