Wheel shooter gearing

[Clark Pappas]

Hi CD,

My team insists that we want to gear the 550 motors for our launcher up. I've been lurking around other CD threads on shooters for awhile, and most teams seem to be gearing down. We are using a two wheel system, positioned horizontally in relation to the rest of the robot.

I'm using the equations mentioned in the first response to this thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...aunch+velocity

The only issue I'm having is that the free speed RPM on the 550 motors is not actually what we are getting (Obviously). How would I calculate a reasonable estimate of how fast our wheels are spinning?

One 550 motor on each wheel
Two 8" Lawn mower wheels (At least, that's what we are using as of right now. They weigh around 7 pounds)


P.S: Bear with my lacking knowledge of physics, I've only taken conceptual, and didn't pay much attention.