Hey yall, I wanted to use a slapper/kicker on my robot for this season. I’m running a green motor as of now, due to the scarcity of red motors at my school. However, I still plan to use a red motor later on. Specifically, I only want to utilize one motor for less power usage. I was plaining on using a 60t gear to a 36t slip gear. However, I wanted to know if a 84t to a 36t slip gear would work better. Mainly for speed but I was told it would draw less power from the motor. So I’m stuck. I plan to use at least 3-4 rubber bands on each side for the slapper. I want my slapper/kicker to be fast for skills and matches. Also, It would be nice if the slapper would hit with enough force to hit over the mid bar. If it helps, I am going to have this slapper on a double reverse 4 bar with about 32~34 inches in height. I would only like it that high to get over blockers that are in my state.
Anyways, thanks for reading and please share any info that would be useful!!
Yes, a 36T to 84T gear ratio will draw less power from the motor than a 36T to 60T gear ratio, and my team did this for our first robot using a red cartridge, which worked well. However, using a green cartridge with this ratio might still overheat the motor. A gear ratio that provides a similar amount of torque to a 36T to 84T ratio but with a green cartridge is a 12T to 60T ratio if you have the parts available.
The best thing you can do in my opinion is to build and test different gear ratios to see what works best. I also highly recommend learning about how different gear ratios affect speed and torque if you haven’t already, as gear ratios are extremely important to understand in robotics.