Slickest drive transmission yet...

[Jim Zondag]

Thanks, I'm glad everyone likes our design.
We have made two speed transmissions for the past several years. Each year we try to make them simpler and smaller. I found that with the kind of high/low shift range that I like to have (3:1 or more) that the robot would tend to lurch severely if you downshifted at high speeds. I really want to make a 3 speed with an intermediate gear to help this. It turned out it was easier to build a 4 speed than a 3 speed ( its really two small two-speeds in series). We focused the design around reliablity and ease of construction, the demo unit on display was made entirely by high school students in a few evenings using no special tooling.
Once I had a design with 4 gears I was pretty much forced to automate the shifting in order to keep from overloading the driver. I talked with a few Automatic Transmission experts at DaimlerChrysler on how to do a shift scheduler and viola....a fully automatic electronic robot transmission.
It really is pretty neat, providing a nearly flat power output across a very wide RPM band with a 5:1 total shift span.
I plan on posting the design and engineering here as soon as I get a good set of drawings made up (I'm not a CAD guy, I made the ones in the robot from a napkin sketch).

[Salik Syed]

This may sound wierd.......but we still haven't tested our low speed yet........haha....we will hook up the current sensors etc...AT COMPETITION!!! (funny i know) ....but they actually said their transmission doesn't give a different torque......torque remains constant....as for ours we still think it might give dif torque outputs but they say it won't..........we probably have to test it....... lol...
btw AWESOME transmission........just saw the pic

[Mike K]

I do belive that a lot of the teams that saw the 4 speed where very impressed. By the end of the day i was tired of explaning the thing.

[sanddrag]

Is there a picture of the real thing? That would serve us both better than me asking a bunch of questions. Thanks.

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Is there a picture of the real thing? That would serve us both better than me asking a bunch of questions. Thanks.

Raul posted a picture.

[Chris 481]

I am from team 481 and i am tryuing to build a 3 speed
shift on the fly atomated pinion gear transmission.

My teacher saw your design and he was blown away and he wants me to build one for next year i am just looking for suggestions and a little help(pictures would be nice)
on how to build one of these transmissions.

[Paul H]

The lead engineer, Jim Zondag, is in the process of moving into a new house and is swamped at work from what I hear. I'll talk to him at the Sweet Repeat (October 9th) and see when he's planning on posting the papers.

[Kyle Love]

At Nationals my team was right next to the Killerbees, so I saw their gearbox demo thingy a lot. I think it is the coolest one I saw. Also, I just don't say that because of how it works, I say that partially because they explained to some of us how it worked etc. I wonder who will build off their design next year? Or who will go bigger and better?

-Kyle

I would also like to thank 33 for being great "pit mates".

[Gus]

Originally Posted by Jim Zondag

Thanks, I'm glad everyone likes our design.
We have made two speed transmissions for the past several years. Each year we try to make them simpler and smaller. I found that with the kind of high/low shift range that I like to have (3:1 or more) that the robot would tend to lurch severely if you downshifted at high speeds. I really want to make a 3 speed with an intermediate gear to help this. It turned out it was easier to build a 4 speed than a 3 speed ( its really two small two-speeds in series). We focused the design around reliablity and ease of construction, the demo unit on display was made entirely by high school students in a few evenings using no special tooling.
Once I had a design with 4 gears I was pretty much forced to automate the shifting in order to keep from overloading the driver. I talked with a few Automatic Transmission experts at DaimlerChrysler on how to do a shift scheduler and viola....a fully automatic electronic robot transmission.
It really is pretty neat, providing a nearly flat power output across a very wide RPM band with a 5:1 total shift span.
I plan on posting the design and engineering here as soon as I get a good set of drawings made up (I'm not a CAD guy, I made the ones in the robot from a napkin sketch).

Would it be possible to get a drawing or photo's of this transmission. It sounds perfect. Thanks Gus

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by Gus

Would it be possible to get a drawing or photo's of this transmission. It sounds perfect. Thanks Gus

The whitepaper is coming in a month or two hopefully. It'll include CAD drawings, instructions on construction, and a generecized(sp?) version of our automation code. All you have to do is install the sensors and download the code and your transmission will be automatic...or at least that's the plan.

[TD78]

Team 33 was right across the way from our pit in Atlanta and I was over there any spare second I got to look at that demo board. When I first found out that they had constructed an automatic transmission, I freaked out. Seeing the transmission in person was something else though. Unfortunately I never got a chance to look inside their robot and see that articulated chassis that allowed them to climb the platform. I've been wanting to design my own drivetrain for the last year or so but with the lack of foundation knowledge and facilities it hasn't quite happened yet. With the new robotics club I helped start at URI hopefully it won't be long now.

I'll be awaiting for that whitepaper with great anticipation. You were without a doubt my favorite robot this season. Good luck at any off-season comps and keep up the good work!

-Tom

[ZACH P.]

Hey guys, any news on that whitepaper yet?

[Jim Zondag]

Well, I finally learned Inventor well enough to draw this transmisison up,
I will be posting this with full details in the white papers soon. here is a sneak peak.