Motors for harvester

[MichaelBick]

We ran 2 in compression too, with a 2 in roller. While we used two 16:1 banebots 550, it was way overkill. We actually ended up switching out our motors for our elevator for LA elims to one 16:1 banebots 550, and it was really perfect. I personally would have geared our pickup up a bit, because it seemed quite good, but not as effective as if we had made it faster. If you have the ability to make a custom gearbox, I think two 550s in a 8:1 or 10:1 gearbox would be perfect. If not, revert to 1 550 in a 16:1.

[midway78224]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

We ran 2 in compression too, with a 2 in roller. While we used two 16:1 banebots 550, it was way overkill. We actually ended up switching out our motors for our elevator for LA elims to one 16:1 banebots 550, and it was really perfect. I personally would have geared our pickup up a bit, because it seemed quite good, but not as effective as if we had made it faster. If you have the ability to make a custom gearbox, I think two 550s in a 8:1 or 10: gearbox would be perfect. If not, revert to 1 550 is a 16:1.

How did you keep it from getting jammed. Since we only had a one stage system it would get jammed when it got to the shooter. We are planning to run a two stage pick up system.

[MrForbes]

I don't know how your harvester is set up, so this may or may not help. We made a single stage gearbox for a Fisher Price motor, then used chain drive to run a roller. The round urethane belting goes up to an idler roller at the top. Ball compression is kind of low at the bottom, maybe an inch, and increase as the balls go up, so they pop out the back at the top.

The gearbox was easy for us to make. We used an older FP gearbox first stage gear, and a 3/8" hex shaft with the ends machined round to fit into the flanged bearings. We just measured carefully and drilled the holes in the Lexan using a drill press. The ball moves about 4 feet up in about a second, which is what we designed it to do. To figure out the gear and chain ratios, we started with that one second time requirement, then figured the needed belt speed. We used that to figure out the gear and chain reduction needed to get the roller to spin that fast based on the no load RPM of the motor, allowing for about 20% speed reduction when it's run with load.


We had zero problems with the mechanism through two regionals.

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by midway78224

How did you keep it from getting jammed. Since we only had a one stage system it would get jammed when it got to the shooter. We are planning to run a two stage pick up system.

I'm not really sure what you mean. We ran two stages though, and balls never got jammed. If I had to do all of the gearboxes over again, I would go with 16:1 for the elevator(one 550) and 8:1 for the pickup(two 550s).