I currently have a 1:1 geared drive base. We tried a 5:2 but it had to work up before it got to full speed making it ineffective. Ideas on how to fix this, or make it faster in general?
From experience, if the robot is heavy, go for a 5:3 for speed. If the robot is on the light side, try 2:1 speed but make sure to keep the battery voltage above 80% when driving the robot.
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This is because for the same amount of power, as you increase a system’s speed, you decrease your torque proportionally. Torque determines how fast something accelerates, making it very important for spinning up wheels. You can try a smaller ratio, or use different sized wheels to find a balance between torque and speed (the radius impacts the inertia of the wheel- more inertia means it takes more torque to spin up but also means a higher maximum speed), but you can’t increase both without increasing the power (adding more motors)
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Although a 1:2 (speed) gear ratio can be a good idea, for your robot (the one in this video) I would probably not suggest a 1:2 drivetrain because of two main reasons:
- It is usually not a good idea to double the gear ratio of your drivetrain less than a week before states.
- I think that for your robot specifically, a 1:2 would be too fast (although I could be wrong). I would suggest something like a 3:5 (speed) or a 2:3 (speed). It depends on how much practice you are going to put in before states. If it’s only a few hours, don’t modify your robot. If it’s more than 5-10 hours, I might give it a shot.
Good luck at states!
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Thanks for the reply! We currently have 11 hours scheduled between today and state. I will try a 1:2 and keep changing it till I feel comfortable. My original goal before state was a 204 but I at that time did not have a fast enough drive base to complete it.
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That sounds like a solid plan. Keep up the good work!
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