Best IQ PTOs

[BananaPi]

This year, having a PTO is very, very helpful. However, while I was trying to find some examples of PTOs for IQ, there wern’t that many. Most of them were from caution tape or @madisogl’s videos, so I thought I would ask you guys what your favorite or best PTOs in IQ are. Please include a picture and if it uses pneumatics if you are able to.

[madisogl]

There are 3 main PTO’s.

Differentail PTO
A differentail PTO utilizes 2 of vex’s differentail gears to with minimal friction and no pneumatics. However, this is super difficult and theres limited resources on it. You will only primarily find this in regions such as China. I wouldn’t recommend this one.
Slide PTO
A slide PTO is a type of PTO more common in V5 where the pneumatic system is more powerful. This utilizes sliding an input shafts gear to power different subsystems. Heres an example.
Processing: Screenshot 2025-01-13 at 9.56.12 AM.png…
Clutch PTO
The third and final adaptation of a PTO is a PTO clutch. These have smooth low pressure transitions, but must be properly tuned to minimize loss of torque. Heres some good examples. Some of these are pretty big, but most competitive ones have been made smaller for efficiency reasons.

Vex IQ Full Volume Small PTO

Vex IQ Full Volume Small PTO

Side Note:
*There are other kinds, such as chain PTO’s, however they aren’t very common and only good for niche situations. *

Hope all this helps!

[BananaPi]

@madisogl

Differentail PTO
A differentail PTO utilizes 2 of vex’s differentail gears to with minimal friction and no pneumatics. However, this is super difficult and theres limited resources on it. You will only primarily find this in regions such as China. I wouldn’t recommend this one.

No wonder I had so much trouble with it.

The biggest issue I had was the little ridge sircled in black rubbing on my T-Fling gears and causing the catapult to not charge. These are also very bulky and hard to place, but are great if you don’t have pnaumatics and need both directions of movement for your subsystems.

@madisogl

Slide PTO
A slide PTO is a type of PTO more common in V5 where the pneumatic system is more powerful. This utilizes sliding an input shafts gear to power different subsystems. Heres an example.

How would you do this in IQ with the shape of the pneumatic cylinder and not being able to really hold on to shafts?

@madisogl

Clutch PTO
The third and final adaptation of a PTO is a PTO clutch. These have smooth low pressure transitions, but must be properly tuned to minimize loss of torque. Heres some good examples. Some of these are pretty big, but most competitive ones have been made smaller for efficiency reasons.

I really like this one. However, I would need pneumatics for this one. How well would you thinkg this would work for a drivetrain PTO to my intake extention for skills? Do you think it would work with one cylinder?

[madisogl]

Without pneumatics is really hard, maybe try a clutch.