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Optimal Gear Ratio Calculator
by: Ari423
This is a spreadsheet calculator that can be used to determine the optimal gear ratio for a mechanism with a given motor and load.
Using formulas from JVN’s Mechanical Design Calculator, I have created a spreadsheet that automatically calculates the optimal gear ratio for a given motor and load. My team is using this spreadsheet this year to help calculate gear ratios and determine motor requirements for our manipulators. I thought I would share it with the FIRST community to help other teams with the process. If anyone finds any bugs or has any suggested improvements, please let me know and I will try to make those fixes.
The calculator is intended to work for any kind of manipulator, but not for drive trains[1]. It also has a feature for calculating the gear ratio needed given a maximum current input, since sometimes the optimal gear ratio will require a current above what is desired. Note that in this calculator, the calculations are done with wheel radius instead of diameter to support arms and wheels in the same calculations.
[1]It will work for drive trains, but you will need to do some more calculations by hand to figure out what the force of friction on the wheels will be.
Optimal Gear Ratio Calculator.xlsx (29 KB)
Optimal Gear Ratio Calculator.xlsx (16.3 KB)