My parents bought me a Lego Technic set that has some Power Functions components in it. Since it's my first time playing with Power Functions, I reckoned I would build a gearbox to experiment with the XL-Motor.
It is a basic 6-speed gearbox (1 reverse and 5 forward) that functions using mechanisms very similar to what you would find on a car. Basically movable 'clutches' engage and disengage gears on various axles to generate different gear ratios. I didn't bother to calculate the gear ratios of my gearbox.
I built everything on a 48 x 48 base plate. The motor is placed near a corner and connected to the gearbox by a long axle. I used bevel gears to channel the output from the gearbox to the edge of the base plate where it is more noticeable. I also added a V8 for decoration, looks more complete that way.
The results of the gearbox are not very satisfying. The more serious problems are listed below:
- High energy loss due to friction. Sadly this means that the output is useless for most applications unless you have a powerful motor.
- Gears crack a lot if stress is present. Not serious at lower gears, but at 3rd gear or higher, trying to stop the output with your fingers results in continuous gear cracking (which means the gearbox is effectively rendered useless)
I could solve the problems by rebuilding the gearbox, but I decided to build a linear gearbox to test out the design and compare it to this gearbox. You could watch the video for the operation of this gearbox.
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