pic: Four Speed Three CIM Gearbox

[Cory]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

At 3:1 per shift, it would be a massive 27:1, which could be a real game changer in some highly defensive games or games with steep ramps. Especially if you want to reserve some CIMs for manipulators!

Under what scenario would that be useful? Once you can break traction you see no benefit to moving slower, unless somehow you needed to very precisely position your robot with fine movements.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

At 3:1 per shift, it would be a massive 27:1, which could be a real game changer in some highly defensive games or games with steep ramps. Especially if you want to reserve some CIMs for manipulators!

Originally Posted by Cory

Under what scenario would that be useful? Once you can break traction you see no benefit to moving slower, unless somehow you needed to very precisely position your robot with fine movements.

Who says that your robot always has the same weight? I seem to recall that there was a game in which robots extended a ramp to lift their alliance partners. I also "blue skied" a robot for Ultimate Ascent which would have literally grappled its alliance partners and made a 90 point outside climb (code name Fezzik, for fans of The Princess Bride). If you wanted that same robot to also fly around the field scoring frisbees for the first hundred seconds of the match, having a multi-speed PTO transmission with a total span of 20+:1 would have been epic.

[magnets]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

Who says that your robot always has the same weight? I seem to recall that there was a game in which robots extended a ramp to lift their alliance partners. I also "blue skied" a robot for Ultimate Ascent which would have literally grappled its alliance partners and made a 90 point outside climb (code name Fezzik, for fans of The Princess Bride). If you wanted that same robot to also fly around the field scoring frisbees for the first hundred seconds of the match, having a multi-speed PTO transmission with a total span of 20+:1 would have been epic.

I always love these hypothetical crazy gearboxes and ratios people come up with. Practical, maybe not, but definitely awesome.

Assuming your robot was geared for 18 feet per second in high gear, and 0.67 feet in low gear (a 27:1 spread), you'd need to have a 1800 lb robot (or group of robots) to take advantage of the gear ratio and never trip the breaker in a pushing match. If the robot weighed any less, you could get away with a smaller spread and never worry about tripping a breaker.

That sounds like my kind of game!!

[thatprogrammer]

Originally Posted by magnets

I always love these hypothetical crazy gearboxes and ratios people come up with. Practical, maybe not, but definitely awesome.

Assuming your robot was geared for 18 feet per second in high gear, and 0.67 feet in low gear (a 27:1 spread), you'd need to have a 1800 lb robot (or group of robots) to take advantage of the gear ratio and never trip the breaker in a pushing match. If the robot weighed any less, you could get away with a smaller spread and never worry about tripping a breaker.

That sounds like my kind of game!!

2002 meant your robot could be several hundred pounds due to how heavy the movable goals were. 71 could drag over 900 pounds that year!