Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

Team 842 is close to finishing our amazingly complex brand new stinger. We are very tight on weight right now so we had to go extra simple on it. Did some initial testing today to see if it works and so far everything looks good. Will post video of full test tommorow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEy59...73FAAAAAAAACAA

Enjoy.

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

We recently took the biggest piston that we could find, put a ball cap on the end and riveted it to the chassis of our robot. Works like a charm.

Sometimes dumb ideas just work really well :P

We can now balance the bridge with only two wheels on the bridge (not legally).

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

GTW -- 2056 just showed (successfully) a pneumatic balancer on coop bridge, don't recall seeing that before

strapped onto the side of their collector

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

Check out team 118 at the Northeast Regionals in Hartford, CT.

The G10/Bridge grappler is gone. Now they have a complete bridge package. Pretty impressive.

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

It also looks like 1114 has one on the back of their pretty machine..

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

Team 2054 has one, here is a video of a promo for Michigan State Competition
This is the Thread: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...highlight=2054
This is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXBz...ature=youtu.be

We have a Big Arm that comes down outside the frame on a pnuematic cylinder, we have used it in double and triple balances. it worked quite well, we balanced every time we got a chance to at niles.

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

Does software count? We have that, a function that holds the drivetrain in its current position (a software break), and just plan old fancy driving. That's worked for us...

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

Does the software brake work once power is cut?

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

I can confirm this, we added the device on Thursday of GTRW. Special thanks to Teams 67, 148, 217 and 469 for inspiring us to go in this direction.

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but 179's bridge balancing mechanism, if you consider it one (since most of these so far have been legs or arms) is my favorite of the season, superb in every way.

It's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_m64ATj3b4

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

I'm guessing there will be more new bridge mechanisms going on display by several teams at Queen City. Just a guess.

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

1023 added a simple one for Livonia as we had very little weight to work with, but did not use it during competition. We did successfully balance 3 several times on the practice field Saturday morning, but did not attempt it during a match. Thanks to 2137 and 2619 for testing it out with us!

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

180, SPAM, has a flipper they use to triple balance, lower the bridge, and traverse the barrier.

They didn't need to use it in Orlando or South Florida. They did, however, successfully use it on the SoFla practice field with 1592 and 3627 four or five times in a row before packing up to queue for elimination matches.

It can be seen at the 40 second mark of this video.

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

On the practice field before elims, we were able to balance 3 long base robots. 869 has their battery on a track, which allows them to shift weight. Buzz Team 175 has one heavy end, with a brake, to allow them to hang half their robot off the bridge.

We (team 126) have tossed around the idea of using our bridge manipulator as a "stinger", or designing something before going to STL.

Our 3 long base bots balancing in 30 seconds: http://youtu.be/_-BasVh4beo

Re: Who Has a Bridge-Balancing Mechanism?
 

We had something very similar to the 469 wooden leg. It was a rod with a wheel, pulled down by a motor from Fisher Price. It was very useful to quickly balance two robots, where the rock was reduced to a minimum in the platform. It was good enough to help the balance of the scope of practice for the Elim, but we never use. I'll post a picture as I can.