Driving side mounted and split paddle wheels independently

[frankmcneilll]

A web site at: http://tinyurl.com/9tv44 has information about continuously variable ratio transmissions. Don’t bother checking out the list on the left side of the page for the Latest CVT web sites because I did that and discovered most of the web sites are for automotive transmissions designed by people who would like to get in on the automotive action.
Go to the bottom of the page and click on “CVT to IVT” which will fetch a method for converting continuously variable ratio transmissions that provides rotation in one direction, to infinitely variable ratio transmissions that can go from “forward” to “neutral” to “reverse” with no need for clutches or gears.
The Winfred M. Berg catalog lists a miniature differential, but I am still looking for miniature CVTs that might be converted into IVTs to drive paddle wheels in different directions and speeds.
If I don’t find any, this might be taken up by somebody who has a shop and miniature machine tools.
If anybody wants to help with the search, they could begin with this list:
PIC Design Index: www.pic-design.com/
McMaster-Carr: www.mcmaster.com/
W.M. Berg: www.wmberg.com/
Power Transmission Page: http://tinyurl.com/dvpqu
Stock Drive Products: http://www.sdp-si.com/index.asp
Zero-Max Home Page: www.zero-max.com/
UK source for Zero-Max drives: http://tinyurl.com/avjhw
Zero-Max has been around for a long time with a reliable line of CVT drives. The maximum output speed for Zero-Max drives is one-quarter of their input speed. The minimum speed is zero, hence the name Zero-Max. Some models have levers for switching into reverse. The output torque of Zero-Max drives is the same at all ratios and they don’t prevent loads from freewheeling at any ratio.
This wouldn’t be a very good feature for some machine applications, but would prevent paddle wheel shafts from snapping when drives were suddenly shifted to a lower output speed. I don’t think Zero-Max drives would be suitable for radio control models, but they might be just the thing for piloted models with a few passengers onboard.

Best wishes. Frank