Working out scale speeds and gear reduction required etc.

[alan2525]

Does anyone know if there is a downloadable utility for calculating scale speeds for various motors, voltages and gear reductions etc?

I was trying to figure out what gear reduction and it would be a nice utility to use, rather than work out the maths. I'm sure someone has made one as it'd be a pretty simple program!

[grumpfuttock]

I don't know of one Alan. I am not very brilliant at maths, but if it is pretty simple as you say, then maybe if you can help with the math, for what you want, and what might be useful for others, I might be able to build it into Scale-Q-lator. I had started trying to work out how I could add a scale speed calculator, but got a bit confused with the math  :( I am willing to give it a try if you want, but cannot promise success !

[MTA]

Alan,

Speed wise, my converter which I downloaded (which is bloody brilliant) can convert speeds measured in centimetres per second/minute/hour into miles per second/minute/hour if that is any help

http://www.esbcalc.com/

It has conversions for distances, area, acceleration, and pretty much everything you will ever need! I have V5.2, and I wouldn't be without it

[alan2525]

I'm just after something like this:



The data for the motor and gear reduction could be taken from tables, or just have a range of gear reductions, 10:1, 15:1, 30:1 etc. Or just enter the output RPM into a text box.

This site has some of the values for various motors and output RPM

http://technobots.co.uk/acatalog/Online ... r_229.html

The maths is pretty simple stuff, enter the wheel diameter and use pi to work out the circumference. Multiply by the RPM's to give the distance travelled in inches per minute, then give various results to give seconds to cover a yard, maybe actual mph and a scale box to give the scale mph. Speeds would just be unloaded speeds and there would be losses and efficiency of the motors etc would be a variable too. But it could work as a very basic rule of thumb.

Could also have an option for metric or imperial units of measurement, but we haven't caught up with metric for distance and speed measurement in this country yet!

[mhlr]

I came across this once: http://www.wis.co.uk/andy/16mm/scalespeeds.html

[alan2525]

Alan,

Speed wise, my converter which I downloaded (which is bloody brilliant) can convert speeds measured in centimetres per second/minute/hour into miles per second/minute/hour if that is any help

http://www.esbcalc.com/

It has conversions for distances, area, acceleration, and pretty much everything you will ever need! I have V5.2, and I wouldn't be without it

Cheers for the link,

I just installed the unit converter, it's great and saves a lot of faffing around in a spreadsheet to convert from speed measurements like mm/second into real world units like miles per hour! Although I still wont aim for a totally scale speed as there's always a time when you just want to bring a loco around into a siding and dont want the wait the scale 2 minutes for it to chug around at a 16mm 15mph...