Re: Ball Pitcher Hood Design
 

This is our first experience making a shooter and we were struggling with our prototype until I came across this thread. Thanks to the advice given here we finally got a good proto running today. Made over 60% of our 3-point shots from the free throw line. Over 90% doing 2-point layups.

We ended up using two 8-inch AM FIRST wheels mounted side-by-side on a 1/2" shaft. The proto is powered by a CIM with a 1:1 chain drive. We plan to use two RS-550s with a CIM-U-LATOR gearbox on the robot. Not sure how much we'll gear it down yet. Today's proto used a flat plywood hood fixed at 60 degrees. Compressing the ball by 2-2.5" seems to work best. Range dropped when we backed off to 1.5". We're going to try a 70 degree hood next as the 60 degree trajectory looked a little flat. We could make a rotating hood, but today's testing showed that we can probably make shots consistently from up close to the top of the key with a fixed angle just by changing the wheel speed.

A big mahalo to all who contributed to this thread! We'd still be struggling without your coopertition! On to the next challenge!

Re: Ball Pitcher Hood Design
 

As far as I can tell, if you have a lot of backspin so the ball bounces down off the backboard into the basket, you WANT a flat trajectory...then you don't need to worry about how far away from the goal you are. One less thing to sense and control.

At least that's how we're planning to play the game.

Re: Ball Pitcher Hood Design
 

Good observation. You're right a lot of our 3-point free throws were off the backboard. We'll still test at 70 and compare.