1:1 gearbox for CIM motors?

[Wildcats1378]

Hey guys,
Our team is looking for gearboxes for the large, black motors that come with the KOP. I believe they are CIM motors? Anyway, we want a 1:1 gearbox for them, and were wondering if there are any avaliable just for purchase. The CIM-ple transmissions are like 4.79:1, which is all we have.

Thanks!

[the man]

Their is no such thing as a one to one gear box, I think. You could direct drive what every you want assuming a shooter. The easiest way would probably be a coupling that fits over your cim shaft and your other drive shaft. Or you could run a belt from the cim to your shaft with the same number of teeth.

[EricH]

The motors are indeed the CIMs. However, I REALLY question why you want a 1:1 gearbox. I don't know of a single gearbox like that (unless you count the keyed output shaft), but unless you're running them under no load, they might have a heck of a time accelerating to top speed.

[Ninja_Bait]

CIM motor is correct.

Why are you looking for a 1:1 gearbox? If you just want a usable output shaft, what you need is a shaft coupler. If you're just trying to face mount the motor to something, then you can just drill those holes yourself. If you're trying to mount the CIM in one place and power something far away at a 1:1 ratio, chain and sprockets or belt and pulleys are what you want.

[the man]

They actually work very well directly coupled to some shooter wheels. We played around with this, makes the wheels act like fans.

[Wildcats1378]

Yeah, we're trying to get our wheels to spin 1:1 with the motor for a shooting mechinism. We don't have anything other then the gearboxes that fit on the shaft though.

[the man]

We had to make a coupler that fit the cim to our drive shaft on our prototype.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Wildcats1378

Yeah, we're trying to get our wheels to spin 1:1 with the motor for a shooting mechinism. .

Just be careful around any wheel that is spinning as fast as a CIM can spin it. Few are rated for the 5000+ RPM and may fly apart violently.

[Borobo]

I would caution you maybe to use another or a combination of motors to power the shooter and leave your cims in the drivetrain. Any drivetrain with 2 or even 3 cims worth of power (~ 900 watts), is going to be fairly deficient in a pushing contest, of which there are many in FIRST. If you do use the cim, there is no reason to use a gearbox. The purpose of gearboxes is to change the rotation speed or torque being applied by a motor, and if you are simply looking to transfer power, use chain.

[Easton8]

save the sims for your drivetrain, use FPs or 775's for your shooter. And if you insist on using a CIM to power you shooter, I would advise against using a 1:1 ratio, assuming your using the CIM to power a flywheel. Your wheel will take a while to accelerate to full speed and every time a ball is fired the wheel will take a while to get back up to full speed. I would recommend 1 or 2 banebots or FP's geared around 3-5:1. And if you insist on using a 1:1 ratio for your shooter just use a shaft coupler, a 1:1 gearbox is completely redundant and just adds extra weight and cost to your robot that you don't need.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by EricH

The motors are indeed the CIMs. However, I REALLY question why you want a 1:1 gearbox. I don't know of a single gearbox like that (unless you count the keyed output shaft), but unless you're running them under no load, they might have a heck of a time accelerating to top speed.

A 1:1 gearbox would basically be two gears of the same tooth count. What about that arrangement precludes acceleration at all? There is inherent friction in any drive setup, which is why adding a gearbox to a CIM motor for no reason might not be the best idea, but it wouldn't preclude acceleration. Any flywheel from Aim High that directly drove the wheel would have similar performance to a CIM motor off a 1:1 gearbox.

I would recommend 1 or 2 banebots or FP's geared around 3-5:1.

I agree with the recommendation, but you do realize that the output you're describing is not that much different than the bare output of the CIM, right?

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by Wildcats1378

Yeah, we're trying to get our wheels to spin 1:1 with the motor for a shooting mechinism. We don't have anything other then the gearboxes that fit on the shaft though.

If you do choose to go with a CIM for your mechanism, AndyMark sells wheel hubs of the right size to fit onto a CIM's output shaft.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

A 1:1 gearbox would basically be two gears of the same tooth count. What about that arrangement precludes acceleration at all?

CIM torque in relation to speed, if there was a large load (say, in drive). As it's a lighter load, that's less of an issue. I will note that when 330 ran a big CIM for a shooter in '06, we did apply a small-ish reduction, in two stages (one belt, one #25 chain), and had zero problems.

[Colin P]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I agree with the recommendation, but you do realize that the output you're describing is not that much different than the bare output of the CIM, right?

Most likely to free up a fourth CIM for drivetrain

[ratdude747]

I have experience running 6" 2008 KOP wheels direct to a cim. in fact, I was the machinist who lathed up the shaft.

3 wheels, no added weights, using a custom shaft machined from 1/2" hex steel (AL= fail) was able to shoot a 2009 orbit ball into a 2009 trailer 10ft away. however, after a few shots the shooter lost a considerable amount of RPMs, so a flywheel prototype was attempted, which took too long to rev up. In the end, code was written to add a extra bit of power for every successive shot in a certain time window at a given power level.

using such a config this year may not even need such code due to the possession limits...

so can a DD cim shooter work? yes.