What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Just wondering what kind of speeds teams are either seeing or expecting their boulders to be flying at?
We used a radar gun on ours this evening and the team as a whole was smiling from ear to ear. 56 mph or 82fps

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Is hella an acceptable speed? Our's moves at about the speed of an unladen swallow.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Over 9000. RPM.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

African or European?


Ours currently doesn't. I haven't asked just how fast we should actually shoot when we get it built, but a prototype shooting from near the Defenses tried to shoot down any flags that might have been on top of the Tower.

My reason for asking is two fold.. One I am curious by nature, second I am curious to know what teams thoughts are on trying to block shots with their robots knowing the speeds that the boulders are being launched at.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

One might say...ludicrous speed...

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

The pool noodle thread I was just looking at comes to mind...it doesn't take much to deflect even the hardest of shots. Many robots were cheesecaked with pool noodle blockers in 2013, and I expect to see similar strategies employed this year.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

We're somewhere in the range of ludicrous speed to bench grinder.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Speed of light as an acceptable measure of our boulder's speed :D

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Hrm. I suppose putting it in terms of bench grinders would be more appropriate. I hadn't thought of that.

2.1 bench grinders. (Spell correct just tried to change grinders to gingers. Silly spellcheck. Gingers aren't a measure of speed).

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

We launch ours at 88mph during qualification rounds so that they'll move forward in time and all get scored simultaneously in the finals.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

I hear Gingers are pretty fast.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

If we shot the boulder through a Chronograph it would be around "Do we really need this much speed and force?" feet per second. It's enough to help a five-ounce bird carry a one pound coconut.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

enough

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Well, the surface speeds on our sets of shooter wheels are 100 and 130 fps at maximum motor output. We generally run it between 60% and 70%. I know we've got a lot of slip. So, the answer is just really, really fast.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

It's a fast enough RPM that the difference between VEX hex bearings and VEX ThunderHex bearings may be necessary to investigate.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Sounds like we are pretty far away from the Aim High 12fps speed limit.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

You know those gravitational waves you keep hearing about recently? Those weren't created by colliding black holes, they were created by our boulders colliding with the opposing alliance's tower.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Im not really sure what ours is running at. It was decent speed when we had mini cims geared 1:1 with 3" of compression, but we put SpinBoxes on the mini cims so its geared 1:1.67 now. The wheels are spinning at roughly 10,000 RPM. We are still working on the final arm/ shooter assembly so we don't even know how well this will work compared 1:1.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Ours shoots fast enough to take out exit signs and castles at range

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Here´s a video of our shooter, its faster than it looks!
https://youtu.be/5XZUleXc4XM

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Looking forward to the design where "low bar capable" + "high exit velocity" != "blockable". Is the flattest parabola really the best parabola?

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

We've found the winner!
At events around the world, pit scouts will ask pit crews "how fast is your shooter" and the correct response is "faster than it looks."

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

You won't have to look further than week 0.5

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

We have our cheesecake noodle blocker ready to go! Defense is going to shut down some teams.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Shut down? Doubtful as they can still score by damage to defenses and you can only defend one. I don't see a defense bot being much more than a minor annoyance, as usual. Not to say they won't make some difference if you already have two very capable bots. That can weaken and breach. They may help in eliminations assuming the other two can handle all scoring.

In quals I have a feeling defense will be a liability as scoring/RP will be at a premium for teams and its easier with 3 bots versus 2.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Yeah I don't anticipate defensive robots trying to stop to many robots from going through the defenses because of the penalties for contact in the outerworks, but I do think robots shooting in either the high and low goals will be significantly slowed by a robot playing defense in the courtyard.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Noodles you say? That'll work for the first ball...

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

yeah, all blockers will have to have a sturdy/flexible support to stay vertical , and to make sure they don't flop over more than 15 inches outside the frame perimeter. In the past we have used PVC with a noodle over it as a blocker.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

About 20 fps. Short shot with front bumpers near the batter, long shot with rear bumpers in the outer works.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Anyone that successfully blocks our shot will very likely be in violation of G17 or G25C.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Ours has to be at approximately 4.6 bench grinders.... we might need to change some gear ratios :eek:

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Well, ours measures in at 27fps at full power...

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

...Not even our first ball. We sent a Garmin VIRB camera flying across the room and still hit the goal. I'm beginning the thing Dirty Harry may have been a more appropriate name for the robot this year.

Re: What speed is your Boulder launching at
 

Worst rule ever...