Anyone ever use planetary gearboxes, like AndyMarks CIM sports in drive train application? Do they last?
Many years ago we used Banebots p80s in our drivetrain. They worked great, and we put a heck of a lot of abuse on them.
But without a cantilever – we supported both ends of the shaft.
They’ll work, but planetaries are really not meant to take the sort of frequent shocks that drivetrain gearboxes have to endure. In the interest of reliability and robustness, I’d recommend using traditional drivetrain gearboxes - you really don’t want a shattered sun gear in the middle of playoffs. What makes you inclined to go with a planetary setup?
Due to many factors, this was not the experience of many teams. Was that 2006 when they came in the KOP? Very rough year for teams.
Sthump, the answer to your question really depends on your use of the planetary gearboxes. Generally, there are a lot of ways to go wrong here. If you don’t know how to figure out if you’re doing it wrong, I recommend using the toughbox or another FRC drivetrain stock gearbox product.
-Mike
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We also have used planetaries to reduce the old super-powerful fisher price motor down to a cim-like speed in 2008. However, planetaries are very inefficient gearboxes, and are usually a poor match for a drivetrain system. We wore out a couple over the season.
If you are reducing down motors like redlines then spur gear alternatives are offered by both andy mark and vexpro.
I went and looked it up just to dredge up all those terrible memories. 2007 was the first year BB gearboxes were in the KoP. And the 56mm gearbox was the KoP drivetrain solution and it sucked. Here’s Dr. Joe and everyone trying their best to deal with the situation.
We used the 42mm gearboxes in a high ratio to lift our ramps and stripped the Double-D output in Great Lake’s practice matches. Then spent Friday figuring out why they wouldn’t lift when they ran fine with no load. Then just straight up welded the output shaft to the carrier plate. Machine shops back then were awesome. Saturday at '07 GLR was terrible for a different reason, sadly.
EDIT: And 2008 was the dawn of the toughbox as the KoP gearbox. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
Actually, it was when we started messing around with mecanum and octocanum drivetrains, so a bit later than that. I was blissfully unaware that it was a big problem, and we got away from them some time ago regardless.
Yes!
VersaPlanetary with 10:1 reduction and CIM motors on west coast drive and also mecanum wheel.
worked perefect (all the way to Einstien)
I believe 1540 used versas in their 2017 drive train with 775pros and they did ok don’t
know of any problems they had tho