Activity 1.2.6 Maximizing Motor Power –VEXIntroductionAn engineer often must design a system to get themost out of limited resources. When designing alaptop or mobile phone, for example, an engineeringteam works to make the battery last as long aspossible. A vibrating cell phone uses a motor with anoff-center load, and it needs to be designed with agear train that delivers the most power or the highestefficiency.These design decisions can be made by making onlyfour measurements of a motor. These fourmeasurements describe the most important propertiesof a particular motor at a given voltage.In this activity you will learn how to make those fourmeasurements. You will also learn how to choose agear ratio to make a motor deliver maximum poweror maximum efficiency for a given task.EquipmentWinch assembly from Activity 1.2.5(2) 1" standoffs(4) 3/8" 8-32 screws(1) 1/2" 8-32 screwDC power supply or two AA batteries andholdersMultimeter
Timing device for timing to 0.01 s precisionVernier force sensor or other device to precisely measure ~5.0 NBreadboardPair of wiresStringClamp