Diffrent Transmission Advantages

[lenny8]

i wanted to start to see the differences between all gearboxes and maybe as a reference to all teams.....

Banebots, Supershifters,Gen2,Dewalt,toughboxes Ect.

[gorrilla]

for reliability, AM gen1's havent let us down,(and that using the same ones for 3 years in a row)

[lenny8]

our team used Dewalts for 6 years ( 2003,2008 not used) and they were light decently fast and wasn't hard at all to build.

[AndyB]

Andymark Gearbox don't break. Period. At least I've never seen one break.

Banebots had some problems in the past but from what i've heard, the new P80's are pretty decent. I can't really comment on DeWalt.

[gorrilla]

bane bots are good too, the only reason we dont use them is because we want the high speed and high torque of the gen1's

[AdamHeard]

AndyMark, AndyMark, AndyMark. All the gearboxes have their uses and strong points, but none of these people "get it" like AndyMark does. Andy Baker and Mark Koors do have the "unfair advantage" of not only being in FIRST for years, but being innovaters in FIRST gearbox design/application.

The dewalt gearboxes are good in some applications, but they are cumbersome to work with/mount compared to the others (not terribly so, but decent mods have to be done to mount and and to provide a usable mounting shaft). If modified right, they can handle plenty of torque and seem to be plenty reliable. I have only personally used them in one prototype, so my experience is all based on research and anecdotes.

Next are the banebots gearboxes. They initially had some reliabilty issues, but have since apparently been improved. I'm still weary of them as their general quality across the line is clearly inferior to that of AndyMark ("good enough" some people say, but not "good enough" as AndyMark). This lesser quality isn't really made up elsewhere, as AndyMark sells products that do similar things for a similar price and usually lesser weight overall. I'd steer clear of them if you can, even if their reliability truly has been increased, their safety factor isn't as big as the safety factor in AndyMark's products.

Now, for AndyMark. In a drivetrain, I feel that unless you have just an excessive amount of resources, at least some parts should be AndyMark or you are just straight up wasting your team's time. Many great teams use his gearboxes stock to great results; 67, 330, 1114. Even 254/968 used some AndyMark gears in their drive this year.

My reasoning on why AndyMark is usually the superior option is simply based on their expertise and quality; their gearboxes usually are the right size, weight, durability, cost etc. for the application at hand. So, if you're using them appropriately, you'll know you got a great deal on a durable gearbox that won't kill your weight or size budget. They also have such a great range of products that between all of it, you have almost limitless applications. Last year on 973, friday before ship we decided we needed a new gearbox setup on our arm. With just one custom plate, and a whole bunch of AndyMark products, we quickly made a 167:1 three motor gearbox.

As for his specific drive gearboxes, the Gen2, Super Shifters and Toughboxes all have their pros and cons based on your drive setup. If you don't want to shift, the toughboxes are a great option for a dual CIM drive. The Pros and Cons aren't really about weight or strength, just mounting and gearing options.

If you do want to shift, choosing between a Gen 2 and Supershifter is usually based on the drive design.

The Gen 2 Mounts by holes on it's horizontal top and bottom face, and has sprockets inside of it. Teams commonly mount it on it's bottom between two wheels, and run chain out to them (and chain from one of those wheels to the last pair assuming a 6wd), which is also their final gear reduction (330 is a great example of this).

If you want a face mounting gearbox, one that mounts by bolts on it's vertical face, the SuperShifter is the option. It has many possible output shafts for nearly any setup. It also has a 3rd gear reduction so it can usually directly drive a wheel with no further reduction (and therefore is great for west coast drive applications). This stage can be removed and it can be used in a face mounted setup similar to what I just described with 330.

A really long post, but I say AndyMark all the way (and he's not even paying me....).

[lenny8]

that was a really bias post.......

[AdamHeard]

I disagree, aside from Andy and Mark being good people, I have no bias towards AndyMark.

When it comes down to it, for my team we're going to use the best products we can get, AndyMark just happens to be the place for that right now.

[lenny8]

it was a joke, i think most if not all teams consider AndyMark for there gearboxes/trannies but, for this tread my goal is for all people to post good things and bad things on gearboxes so it can be used as a easy search guide for all teams ( mostly rookie teams).

[MrForbes]

I think Adam covered the subject pretty well with one post.

[s_forbes]

It's also worth mentioning the great range of options you can get with AndyMark gearboxes. Lots of them give you different gearing choices; the Stackerboxes and planetaries can both have stages added to increase reductions, the Supershifter and gen 1 and 2 shifters have different speed ratios as well as final gearing ratios, and the Toughbox has several different gearing configurations (3.56, 5.95, 8.45, or 12.75 to one). AndyMark definitely has the most to offer as far as gearboxes are concerned.

For manipulators, Banebots offers some great gearboxes, too. The 42mm planetaries come in a lot of different ratios and they are easy to mount. There have been problems with the bigger planetaries in the past, but they can work alright as long as you don't put them through too much abuse.

Past traumatic experiences with the DeWalt transmissions make me not very fond of them, but other teams seem to have good results.

EDIT: also, I prefer the Gen 1 AM shifter over the Gen 2 shifter. Since it's symmetrical, you can flip the plates around to make it more compact. The only thing the Gen 2 has to offer over the Gen 1 is that it is able to use the big CIM motor, but that motor was illegal last year. (We don't know if it will still be illegal next year, but there's a good chance)

[gorrilla]

and theres always cutom too, when built right they can be just as good

[IndySam]

We have used complete AM drive trains for the last three years and we will do so again this year. Depending on the type of game we will use Gen 1, SS or the new Gem but if I were to recommend a trany to rookies it would have to be the Toughbox (assuming we get them in the kit.)

They are easy to use and reliable and will get the rookie teams rolling with a reliable solution right out of the box. Exactly what they need.

[R.C.]

AM is great for one, Adam covered it beautifully and the one problem we did have with Andymark's supershifter (this was totally our fault); was the fact that we broke the roll pin. I know I have posted this before but i wan't to warn other teams. DO NOT SHIFT AT 60 PSI. Shift at 20 psi. Also if you are looking for custom stuff, use Andy's gears and create your own custom plates and shifters. Using some of his STUFF is always a good decision, btw the quality is great.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by rc_cola1323

AM is great for one, Adam covered it beautifully and the one problem we did have with Andymark's supershifter (this was totally our fault); was the fact that we broke the roll pin. I know I have posted this before but i wan't to warn other teams. DO NOT SHIFT AT 60 PSI. Shift at 20 psi. Also if you are looking for custom stuff, use Andy's gears and create your own custom plates and shifters. Using some of his STUFF is always a good decision, btw the quality is great.

This also happened to us in the offseason (at a demo I think).

I'm rather suprised AM doesn't make any recomendation on their site about this. It would be a good bit of advice for teams to know.