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Rapid fuel feeding into shooter
It seems we're all aiming for speed on our shooters, trying to max out balls per second, but I haven't seen a thread yet on how to feed these shooters at a matching rate. Just thought I'd open a discussion, as I think this has the possibility of being the most overlooked component this season. (This is sort of a compliment thread to Realistic high goal scoring rate)
We've seen the blender method used in some robot in 3 days videos, and it does work but it takes too much time to get the balls to the shooter in my opinion. I'm a fan of the Zou Keeper single file line fed into the shooter, but this presents obvious space usage issues (limiting how many balls you can hold) and human loading issues Perhaps some combination could work - A blender that lines the balls into a single file chute as you drive across the field so you have a stock of balls ready to go at the boiler, but you could only have so many balls ready to go and you're stuck again with the feed rate of the blender. TL;DR How is everyone planning to get their fuel from a jumbled mess to the shooter in a timely fashion? |
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You call that a blender? THIS is a blender!
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Those wheel agitators are nuts hahaaa
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In regards to other methods of feeding Fuel, an auger similar to those in Icee machines might be an excellent solution. I've seen several people try homemade versions of an Archimedes screw, but I think that the solid shaft and the rather uniform (albeit spiral) travel of the Fuel in the hopper makes for a more difficult integration than the combination of agitation and propulsion the augers offer. ![]() |
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What's wrong with the ol' flat polycord elevator we all know and love? Are you specifically looking for "many-to-one" solutions?
The fastest accurate high capacity shooter I can remember is 217's 2009 robot, still one of my all time favorites. Not saying a powered helix is the right call for this game, but it's a hell of a mechanism. |
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If you don't rob momentum from the fuel, gravity can feed them at a pretty quick rate. ;)
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When it comes to quick feed conveyors, 469 is 2006 is what I think of.
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You could do a helix at the cost of volume, and have the balls single file and easily feed into a shooter. Alternatively, if you just have a bucket o' balls, whats the fastest way to get them single file into the shooter? Quote:
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5402 is a disciple of the Stephen Kowski School of How To Play Lunacy. No unnecessary choke points (though we will add a little width into the central storage area for extra capacity), sort 'em out early, flow through and get 'em out.
Our game strategy is distilling to "deliver a gear, and get what you're going to get at the boiler quickly". This is probably not the game that is going to win Einstein, but we're rebuilding from missing state last year and we think this will get us back on track. (And look cool as all hell in the process.) |
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what fabric are you using?
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25 in 2006 had a brilliant shooter and straight up dominated Aim High. Essentially they had a flywheel and a mill to feed the ball. Flywheel on a live axle, and then a mill that went around the flywheel on a dead axle, both were powered by different motors. The mill allowed them to control the out put of the balls effectively, and run it backwards if anything jammed. Take a look at any of their match videos.
We are currently working on a prototype that will shoot 3 balls wide with a mill that goes around it. Looking forward to the results. |
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This was a hopper test, no shooter on it...
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I've been pondering this over the last couple weeks, so this is what I've thought of. We're building and testing it this week. Basically the balls roll in one direction and fall down into a chute that takes them to the shooter. They are able to fall into the chute whenever they want, which helps prevent jamming.
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We ditched this mixer concept for a different one, so you won't see a high powered trashcan blender on our robot this year. |
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Maxnz-Looks like a cool design. In your drawing I see an inner radius of a circle roughly 6.5 from the center of the 2 7/8" banebot wheel, which looks to be intended for contact with the 5" dia. balls, but the outer circle is roughly 9.5" radius from the wheel center. This would not make contact with the ball that I can see so I am just curious as to the purpose of this outer radius in the design?
Thanks! |
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For those not shooting x balls wide, has anyone tried a polycord conveyor that funnels the balls from many wide to one wide?
Something like just a regular wide conveyor but with guides in it like so: / \ Do you think this has the possibility of jamming? |
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You may want to look into non-straight geometries, somethings like the attached image may work better. The Y component is exaggerated, you would probably want the width change to happen over a much longer length. |
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This is the concept we are planning to use, modeled at 1/3 scale with gamepieces that are affordable. This spits balls out into two streams, but if you make half of the hopper it should shoot balls out into one stream reliably. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQRavPxOIM0 |
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I was thinking more vertical like most were in 09 (poofs, ect) but just with guides inside. Maybe I'll make a terrible paint drawing in a bit.
I think Skyehawk saw what I was trying to get out, and I agree with what he had to say |
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What would happen if you had the / \ but ran the center belts faster (different sized pulleys) to evacuate the middle and let the guides migrate the outside balls into the faster moving middle? Someone PLEASE prototype this. :) |
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![]() -Brando |
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-Brando |
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Brandon u r alpha
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