Excel Solve - solve using list of numbers only

[gibsoni]

Hi All.

Great forum.

I am trying to write a spreadsheet to tell me a combination of available gears to put in a gear train given a desired gear ratio.

The setup will be a compound gear train. I will write a different program to try and solve for 3 gears, 4 gears (common lay shaft).

I am having trouble seeing how to constrain the input to a list in the sheet. I want to be able to select a single input cell (used as an input part of the formula)and constrain to a list of specific numbers (the gears I have available).

I seems to want me to select a single constraint for each input only.

This is in excel 2003 with solver add-in.

Thanks for any suggestions.

p.s. I found a similar question to this on this site but couldnt make sense of applying the constraints

 

[GregLocock]

Wrong approach. Even if Solver was good at integer stuff, I still think you'd be better off stepping through the tiny number of combinations and getting an exact answer.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[rb1957]

maybe this site helps ... found it googling "gear train tables"

http://www.mrob.com/pub/lego/gears.html

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