Quote:
Originally Posted by rc_cola1323
Maybe, maybe not. But you could utilize 2 or 3 of the speeds at the least and its still lighter than the supershifter. Also think about offseason events and all the things you could do with different speeds (pull a track, have a robot race with all you robots, show off to the community).
Think about it for a sec:
08:
-Needed an extreme high gear for the straightaways
-A Middle gear for turning and good handling
-A low gear to play defense on hurdling robots and for those times of traffic jams.
07:
-Needed an extreme high gear to go from one side of the field to the other
-A middle gear for turning and a good handling of the bot
-A low gear for what a lot of teams did, play defense.
06:
-A high gear to go from side to side
-A second gear for turning and handling
-A third gear for staying on the ramp
-A low gear for climbing the ramp
In my opinion there is a need for it, thats why people use dewalts. But with dewalts there are so many mods and only a single cim so far. The shifting is terrible. Also what if your programmer can make a line of code that would allow easy on the fly shifting. Your in normal gear and when you press the right trigger, bam, high gear. Your in normal gear and when you press the left trigger, bam, a low gear with pushing power.
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Just remember that shifting is never instantaneous.
Some of your circumstances where you list as needing three or more speeds can be accomplished with two (or even one) for less weight and less complexity. Or, things like greater control while turning can be accomplished through code algorithms that can "detect turning" and limit the maximum turn/spin rate of the robot instead of adding weight to add another speed to your transmission.
I'm not saying that designing and prototyping a four speed transmission is bad; on the contrary it would most likely be a great learning experience for the mechanically minded people. But the practical implications on the FRC competition field would make any benefits limited, as once you go above two or three speeds, it would probably be less complex to design and fabricate a CVT transmission than a fixed ratio one.
Robotics is not just about solving problems mechanically*; it's about finding the most efficient solution to the problem at hand.
* As much as I wish... Who needs a gyro when you can build a south pointing chariot? 