Flywheel help

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC
1

Hi everyone,

My vex team is currently building a flywheel. We have a 1:25 ratio running on two motors. We quickly found out that our flywheel burns out too quickly. Any suggestions on what we should do?

2

Check for friction. Have you stuck teflon washers at every contact point? If not, the problem is friction.

3

Aha. ok that’s something we should do.

Also, we have heard people tell us that we should put more motors to offset the gear ratio. For those people that have built flywheels what ratios have you guys used and how many motors? Do you recommend that we use more motors or decrease the ratio?

4

Pictures would help.

What motors are you using? 393 or V5? What are their internal gears set to? Do you have any axles going through more than two bearings? What size wheel are you using? How long does the wheel spin when spun manually with the motors removed?

5

Here’s a picture

IMG_1837.jpg
IMG_1837.jpg3024×4032 2.69 MB

6

The most important thing with flywheels is build quality. It looks like there is not a lot of bracing between the c channels. My best suggestion would be to extend the c channels farther down so that you can brace them a lot more. If any misalignment of the axles in the bearings will cause a lot of friction. You need to lock down those c channels so that the axles cannot become misaligned.
I hope this helps!

7

Ok a few things here:

  1. Your gearboxes are structurally unsound. Each side of each gearbox is not parallel to the other, which causes a massive amount of friction.
  2. Your flywheel axle is going through 4 bearings. This is not a good idea because unless you have aligned all those bearings perfectly (which is almost impossible), there will be a massive amount of friction. Put all of your axles through two bearings max.
  3. Your motors each have their own gearbox. This is unnecessary and adds unneeded friction. Put both motors on one side of the flywheel.
  4. Your motors are loose.
  5. Your flywheel axle may be bent. It is hard to tell form the picture, but if this is the case, this is very bad. Remember, at full speed this flywheel will be flying at 2500RPM, which is really fast. You must try to make your wheel and all other fast spinning parts as balanced as possible.

Overall, you need to improve your build quality.

And some questions you didn’t answer:

  1. What are the internal motor gears set to?
  2. How well does the wheel spin when the motors are disconnected?