One speed vs Two speed gearboxes

[philso]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Chooo Chooo!

I think it's fair to argue for 95+% of teams the difference between a 16fps high gear and a 20+ fps high gear is not what will make them more competitive.

Gearing that high requires a higher attention to detail mechanically, as well as a good supply of batteries. Many teams don't realise their batteries are in bad shape because their robots simply don't use that much juice.

You are also likely to wear out your batteries much faster. You are consuming energy to accelerate your robot and move it across the field. Higher speeds means that you will have to pull more energy out of the battery in each match than if you used a lower top speed. Thus, it is harder to avoid deeply discharging your batteries and damaging them (see page 9 of the Enersys "Genesis NP Applications Manual").

Our experience at work with using the NP7-12's in our UPS' is that applications that cycles the batteries more frequently and discharge them more deeply will shorten the life of the batteries, dramatically. There is also a line that states "When considering discharge currents exceeding 6C, consult with an EnerSys Application Engineer." Notes from manufacturers like this usually indicate that their experience is that such operating conditions are likely to permanently damage or shorten the life of the component. The 6C discharge rate corresponds to 103A which is easily exceeded in many of the recent drive train designs.

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