pic: 222 3 speed closeup/cutaway

[jskene]

I have done a sketch of a possible shifting mechanism for this type of transmission, and inserted it below. I have spaced the 1/2" gears 1/8" apart and designed the 'bump' on the shifting rod so that there is a neutral in between each gear. This would allow the robot controller to match shaft speeds before shifting into the next higher or lower gear. I'm not sure whether this is really necessary, as I don't know how rough the shifting is with team 222's existing design. (Any comments here from 222?)

The next item needed is some means of moving the shaft 3/16" per slot to engage each gear - 1,N,2,N,3. This needs to have some "springyness" (technical term here) to ensure that it doesn't jam the balls into the gear before they are ready to go. I don't yet understand how 222's transmission does this.