254 Gearbox Analysis

[craigboez]

I'm sure all the members of 254 are very helpful, I just don't happen to know any of them. This public forum that they most likely check frequently seemed like a good place to start a discussion. Plus then everyone gets to benefit from this, not just me.

After looking at this further, I think a few of my initial assumptions were incorrect. It would appear that the "lower" dog plays the role of speed changer and the "upper" dog serves to engage or disengage the PTO. At first I thought both of those were part of the speed changing equipment. That accounts for two of the three pneumatic cylinders. I am still unsure of what the third, larger pneumatic cylinder is used for.

The first photo shows the two separate dog shifters. I believe those are three position air cylinders.

I'd agree. It looks to be a Bimba FOP style cylinder. Reference page 2.35 of this PDF: http://bimba.com/pdf/catalogs/FL_FlatCylinders.pdf

I believe the last picture is the setup for their ball accumulator. A lot of teams last year that had pinch roller setups used some sort of clutch to keep constant pressure on an acquired ball and not burn out a motor.

I'd agree. This bot has several gearboxes and they all look alike, so I confused the ball collector gearbox with the drivetrain/PTO gearbox.