I currently have a DR4B that runs on a 1:5 gear ratio with a motor on each side. I really need another motor somewhere else on the robot. If I take one motor off, and increase the gear ratio to a 1:15, would that still have the same power?
I feel 1:15 it way more than what you need, if you have a tray with a lift then maybe, but otherwise id probably say1:9 would be better
You might be able to just do some really good rubber banding and keep the ratio the same. I’ve never tried it before but I think it might work.
I need to be a bit pedantic about terminology here:
- (angular) speed: rate of ration, e.g. RPM
- torque: force of rotation, e.g. N-m or ft-lbs
- power: speed * torque, e.g. horsepower or watts
One motor always* has half the maximum power of two. However, if you want it to have the same torque as two (which seems likely), then you need to gear it down by approximately 1/2. If your two motors were geared 1:5, then 1:9 is the closest reasonable gearing that you can get. This would have 5/9 ~= 56% the speed of the original.
* on a normal DC electric motor, this would always be true, but the V5 smart motor firmware does limit current draw in ways that impacts this. You shouldn’t need to worry about that here though.
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