Shift on the fly LEGO gearbox

[Gadget470]

Werner:
as rlowerr just said, no it's now how the technokat transmission works. If this were to be a 'real' gearbox, shifting on the fly would be a bad situation at high speeds.

rlowerr's box works, the motor facing leftward drives the main shaft, which has a 2 halves. The ingenius method is to have the second motor (facing up) attatched to a fast moving worm gear (see white gear to small gear to worm). The worm engages the Lego Stop (Small spacer with a groove), which then follows the worm teeth up and down to shift the 2nd half of the main shaft (via connection by the black arms). See that clog of stuff on the main shaft? That is what allows the shaft to spin and move too. (Awesome thought). Then, depending on if the shaft is up or down, the gears engage with the drive shaft gears.

Lego Pro:
Because of the low torque and RPM that the Lego motors provide, the Lego gears can withstand the "shock force" (I don't know if thats a real term, but thats what I'll call it), of forcing the spinning gear into the non-spinning (motor spinning, not engaged to either) or different speed gear (Shift on the fly).

Real World Con:
FIRST and other motors usually provide enough torque to rip the teeth of a steel gear if not properly built. Involute gears don't "force mesh" to happily because of how little play there is. Force meshing will put a high load on the edges of the teeth which can and probably will weaken and damage at least one of the gears.


While this is a really cool concept, using this as a shift-on-the-fly in the real world could have painful reprocussions. However, using this as a "stop-and-shift" would work beautifully if done correctly, (short push of the gears so they force-mesh slower.

Conclusion:
rlowerr: Awesome idea, really cool and original movement methods (I've never seen a worm used like a reverse rack and pinion), but this just wouldn't work as well with metal and high power motors. Please, don't take that as an insult, thats my personal opinion and I've been known to be wrong. I like your gearbox.