Does anyone have any good ideas for gear ratios for a ball shooter. Just trying to make the best shooter possible and I need some ideas for the gears.
You’ll need to clarify some things. First, and most importantly, what kind of shooter are you using? Some sort of catapult, puncher, flywheel, or something else? What motors are you working with (V5, 393)? What are you building it to do (ball size, ball material, distance it’s being fired)? I see you didn’t post in the Turning Point forums, so I’m not assuming it’s for Turning Point.
Unless stated otherwise, I think it is pretty safe to assume that every question is related to turning point.
I’ve been on the opposite end of that assumption when it was totally incorrect. Not only that, people started insisting that I shouldn’t have posted since it wasn’t about the current game. But that was exactly why I’d posted outside of current game parts of the forum.
So, since I was asking questions about the design, I figured I might as well ask that as well to be sure.
Hi there!
The ratio depends heavily on your launcher and your motors. 2 motors is pretty reasonable, but the ratio will change if you’re using 1 or 3. Anyhow, with 2 motors, a double catapult geared 1:5 or 1:7 is great. With a linear puncher, 1:3 should give you enough torque. With a flywheel, you will want somewhere between 18:1 and 40:1 depending on your wheel mass and radius. I use 84 tooth gears as my flywheel so 40:1 works nicely. If you’re using 5” wheels, 21:1 is plenty. With 4” wheels, 30:1 is pretty reasonable.
Whatever launcher you decide, be sure to test different ratios within reason to figure out which one works best for you. If your motors are a little old or your launcher has less friction than normal, the optimal ratio will change.
Good luck!
To be honest I believe figuring out the ratio is rather more fun instead of asking. But since you did ask for our input I will say that it does depend on your build quality, the distance you’re going to be shooting the ball, as well as how fast and the power you’re putting forth for the mechanism.
Single Flywheel (3+ Motors) - The most popular gear ratio for single flywheels I see is a 1:5/1:5 (1:25 ratio) or 1:5/1:3 (1:15 ratio) gear ratio and is possible due to build quality and experience, but you may need to figure it out for yourself.
Double Flywheel (4+ Motors) - My nothing but net robot when I was in middle school had two flywheels that were 1:7/3:7 (1:16.33 ratio) for each wheel and shot full-court into the nets.
Catapult (2+ Motors) - With the catapult in this season most teams are going for a 7:1 gear ratio, such as it is a 12t gear powering a 36t gear, which the 36t gear is on the same axle as a 36t slipgear which connects to the 84t driven gear which has the lever. Some teams are able to accomplish a 5:1 gear ratio, but I would reccomend 7:1 because you have more control on how much power you’re willing to devote via motors and you can change the speed via internal gearing.
Puncher (2+ Motors) - For a puncher, it would be best to do a 3:1 gear ratio where you have a 12t gear driving a 36t gear, which is on the same axle as a 36t slipgear to the rack gearing. This should provide enough torque, but if you’re noticing you can make it faster you can change the internal gearing of the motors, or you can even try a 1:1 ratio if you have extremely good build quality.
Hopefully this helps 
EDIT//: Noticed some grammatical errors with gear ratio, fixed
Guys keep in mind these are 393 motors not v5 in Connor’s post also, 1:1 on 2 torque 393, is very doable however if you want to shoot all the way across the field corner to corner it might not be possible since the puncher relied on the NBN balls squishing a little bit. So keep in mind you might need a lower ratio to run.