how to model motor+gearbox

[James Critchley]

Ether,
This is all "correct," but clearly it is not "right." There should be some kind of free speed loss, so it's not a very good model. Your initial post asked for "wisdom" and John has delivered that.

I agree with everything he said except this:

...I stopped using any of the detailed mathematical modeling in favor of a simpler analysis.

The only thing simpler than Ether's model would be to ignor efficiency entirely. He's beat you by one multiplication, that's 25% percent fewer FLOPS. Think about what you could be doing with all of that extra time during build season!

I'm interested to hear how the banebots data works out.