Hello,
My name is Erin and I am a member of a second-year team in CA. We would like to build a transmission, but this will be a first for all of us. If anyone has tips, plans, suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. I am new here on Chief Delphi, so if the information we seek is linked to this site, I would love to know. Thank you!
Welcome Erin,
Just check out the White Papers section of this website. The button for White Papers should be in the upper orange bar on the right side. Click on it and then on Technical. There will be a list of technical papers including several different transmission designs that have been posted over the years. For a second year team I’d go with either the TechnoKats original or the one recently posted by Team 116. But that is just my opinion, feel free to use whatever works for your team.
Of course, all of these are based on motors that have been used in the past. There have been rumors of changes, so you might have to adapt what is there.
In the future, you might want to search the website for answers to specific questions before posting.
Keep asking questions, that is what we’re here for.
If you have the resouces and want to build a transmission, I’d say go for it, but, especially if you plan on using only drill motors for your drive, you can do very well by simply using the drill transmissions and shifting them with servos or, better yet, small pneumatic cylinders. Another option is using the drill transmissions with an extra motor coupled to the end of the drill motor. A TechnoKats design for doing this is in the white sheets, and there may be other designs there.
A downside of using the drill transmissions rather than custom made units is that you need to stop before shifting them or they will be damaged in short order. Our home-made boxes on our '02 robot could be “shifted on the fly” without damage. If you could come up with a way to accurately match revs, maybe the drill transmissions could be shifted while moving. You could also probably win technical awards by doing this.
Tom Schindler and myself have been working on a new whitepaper which attempts to consolidate and condense all the discussion concerning FIRST drivetrains. This should be completed and posted by the end of week 1 (shortly after kickoff).