Yeah, well the pit crews are definately going to be busy with repairs.

pit crews......busy !????!!??
 

pit crews and busy never match for our team for the past three years we have been virtually break free. We expect to have a sherman tank this year and don't see much down time. As for catching air yes it's possible.....trust me!

Pit Crews
 

This year, pit crews will be even more valuable, due to the various contact scenarios in the game. I know that Team #365's pit crew is ready for the challenge. Last season, our pit crew was busy almost all the time between matches. And no matter how badly MOEHAWK was bruised and battered, it always went in the next match, ready for more bruising.

Way to go pit crew!

Now, let's hope you don't have to work as hard this season.

pit crews
 

Yeah, we here at 706 always went into the next match. Our pit crews have been really good, considering last year we had a lot of sharp edges, ntm the battle axe goal grabbers made the refs a little edgy. As for catching air, it's possible but not all that useful. The power to weight ratios given out by the motors isn't that spectacular, and that's not even adding in the reduced traction on the ramp. Also, the Harriers have these little objects called wings that allow them to "catch air" and stay there. Building a 130 lb robot with the motors provided and having it catch air off the ramp is a fairly useless endeavor for the effort needed to make it happen.

What's interesting is our robot will have a 1" lower ground clearance than what we had for Zone Zeal. An no (sadly) it will not have pneumatics to raise and lower the ride height.:( Ground effects are still a possibility however.:cool:

clearance
 

We had problems with clearance when our front wheels were on the platform and our back wheels were on the ramp with our '02 bot. We discovered that our delrin (sp?) chain guides were catching on the top crosspiece on the mesh. I moved them up so we now have no problem. The robot is 36" long with 6" wheels and has a clearance of 1 3/4" with them moved up. We are going to make sure that our bot this year will clear the ramp without catching on the mesh.

Better watch ur breakers. that falling wall of boxes just may be enough to trip a finicky breaker. this game is not for the poorly designed.

Re: Pit Crews
 

Yes air is possible...last year 12 ft per second into a ball....we were airborne. Oh, I have a Tiger II (or Royal Tiger with the infamous 88 of course) German tanks almost always one on one would beat Allied tanks (except for the T-34...but the T-34 has its TC also being gunner). Quantity (and airpower) beat them. Acutally, S.P.A.M.'s pit crew is actually pretty good about repair jobs so we oughta do fine there.

I have a design that can hold 3 at a time and can stack up to 6-8 bins, AND can go undr the bar....

Anyone interested in me posting sketches?

That would be quite interesting. How strong would it be?

Wow, thats impressive. I would love to see sketches.

Sketches are a far cry from the harsh reality of real designs. In sketches, you can do anything.

sketches
 

Sketches rule! I mean, I have my helicopter robot all sketched out, but the idea was scrapped because of the whole "safety" thing involved. I decided that refs would not like whirling blades too much. . . . So, now I need to design some jump-jets for next year. . . . .

Its a shame that we can only order 3 penumatic clyinders....that would have been useful in launching ones bot into the air smack into the boxes....and then we all can laugh as our bot gets stuck on top of a pile of them.

I have a seriously good idea that can get UNDER the bar while being able to carry 6-8 boxes, just I cant go under with boxes, and it got scrapped, not because it wasn't unreasonable, but because my team voted to go completely out of their way to make a blocker, perhaps one of the most difficult designs to make functional and useful, (and I'm designing it too!)

I don't have a scanner set up, I mean I have a old 640x480 capability scanner gathering dust in the corner of my room (still in box), and I have friends with good scanners, but I'm overcaffeinated, graphite all over my hands, and JapRap playing in the background, so I'll get you a pic sometime in the future, most likely at the half point of the build season...just so that people don't rip off my wonderful designs....Until then, my fellow caucasian designers....