Hey guys, my team and I have been discussing PTOs more recently as a tactic for transferring power for the elevation portion of Over Under. We know how they work and such but none of us know what the acronym actually stands for. I’ve checked around this and the scary forum but can’t find anywhere that somebody actually said what it is.

Some things that came up were

• Pneumatic Transfer [something]
• Power Take-Off
• Power Transfer Operation

but these are just us trying to fit phrases to the acronym. Thanks.

According to Google… paid time off
Jk, it’s a power take off, according to Badgertruck.com“Power take-off units connect a truck’s engine to another device to help it run” which what a pto is used for on the robot (except for when it’s used for shifting drive train ratios)

Wait… are you saying that a PTO is a Power Take-Off except when it’s used to shift drive ratios? The description you quoted doesn’t really seem to fit the applications of motor sharing that PTOs are usually used for in VEX, so I had thought that it was a really niche acronym made up by VEX participants. I was also nearly sure the P was for pneumatic.

It’s Power Take-Off. Tractors have power take-off which allows them to use their engine to not only power their wheels but also power external equipment.

Sorry, I was meaning that the quote lines up with how people use ptos except for the ones used to shift drive ratios, not that it isn’t a pto when used that way

Shifting would be a transmission?

i’ve always thought “pneumatic transmission operation” sounded nice but it’s probably wrong