I am on a freshman team and we qualified for the Texas Region 5 World Primers. We’re doing a redesign of our drivetrain, since it needs constant maintenance. We’re stuck on what gear ratio and motor cartridges that we should use, but it has to be 4 motor. Blue 36:60? Green 60:36? We obviously don’t want to be slow, but we don’t want to be insanely fast, also having to worry about torque and motors overheating. Any recommendations??
Arugably it has to be 6 motors to have a chance at winning (if your region has any good teams).
A good intake and mobile goal mech won’t matter as much if you get bullied around the field by a robot with 50% more motor power than you. If you can please use 6 motors.
Use hot swap motors - taking out the motor cap screws and using rubber bands/zip ties to hold the back and cap together, enabling you to swap out the backside quickly in case it overheats.
I assume you are using 3.25’’ wheels, as that’s the only viable wheel size for blue 36:60. It is a mid ratio, I would recommend 400 rpm (blue motors geared down 48:72) if, hopefully, you’re using 6 motors as it’s fast but good enough for a new driver. If you’re using 4 motors (which I do not recommend at all) blue 36:60 is good, or green 60:36 if your torque is really lacking.
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Also, make sure to do 2 full crossbraces.
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In my opinion the single best RPM and wheel size for 4 motor drive is 360 RPM on 3.25 inch wheels.
My team used 44w 333 rpm on 3.25 inch wheels on our first robot and it worked very well. It was decently fast, but it didn’t overheat easily. It only became noticeably slower/weaker after driving for 15 minutes with a 15 pound robot.
Here is a list of drivetrain gearings and their speeds to help you decide.