2-Speed vs 1-Speed drivetrain

[waialua359]

The ideal situation for us several years ago was to go with a 2 speed transmission, and use code to do "auto-shifting" depending on the speed of the robot.
It proved short lived when we started having roll pin issues with our shifter. Although there are now fixes to this issue, I still dont think that shifting often in every match is a reliably good thing to do.

I say run as quick as your drivers can handle comfortably and give yourself the option to switch into a ~5fps low gear range in pushing situations. There are many more options available that you can buy compared to just a couple of years ago. Our robot this season accelerated much better vs. our 2013 robot.
In 2015, we plan to run faster (add additional motors also), with the intent that our 5th year driver will be able to handle it and he wants to.