How to make a winch release freely?

[RonnieS]

Originally Posted by joshgilmour

We're a rookie team and are planning to use a winch for the purpose of pulling back our launching arm. We've little experience with all this, so we're having some issues trying to figure out how to make it so that when we finally want to fire, the winch can turn freely without being hindered by the motor that pulled the arm back. We plan on using a high torque motor that turns slowly, though I don't recall the name. It came with our kit.

I've read some posts about getting a gearbox to shift to neutral, among other such ideas, but have no idea if any of them would really work. Could anyone help me? If so, thank you so much!

This should help. They used a lunch box I believe to house their shiftering mechanism where it is put into a neutral (free spin) mode then engaged back into a winch back mode. You can do this with any of the shifting transmissions, some are just easier than others. If your looking to buy one, I would recommend the andymark gen 1 shifter. I think they are in stock again but im not 100% sure.

But to answer your question, yes the method will work if done right. Also, take into account the tension on that dog gear to release from the winching mode after you have pulled back your arm, reason behind Ri3d 1.0 using a longer arm (lever) to actuate it into neutral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx3I2_CYeGs

Hope this helps!