GEM500 (am-0401)--adding stages?

[EricPalmatier]

Just thought I would through this out. There are no other output shaft options available for the GEM gearbox, except for the one that it comes with. Should you direct drive off a 5-stage GEM variant, you are likely to produce a torque load that exceeds the material strength of the shaft itself. You could of course machine your own solution, but have fun with that!

I ran a 5 stage GEM gearbox a week ago to demonstrate an idea. It maxed out at 178 pounds of lifting, direct driving off of the 666:1 GEM 5 stage gear box and an arm length of 9 inches. Fact: I tested to failure. Fact: your robot probably will not weight 178 pounds (see FRC manual!!). But how long is the arm length and what kind of moment are you putting on that shaft?

You would probably be way better off running a 3 or 4 stage variant of the GEM gearbox, then have further reductions via either a worm gearbox or some chain and sprocket reductions. just my .02.