Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

I saw a few teams that had difficulty using the new balls - at the UCF regional, one ball-collector team that catches all 18 (most of the time) balls from the ball release bin built their ball ejection mechanism based on the balls that they were given. Now, with these new balls, they can only eject a few balls (3 or 4) of the 18 or so that they carry. They're currently upgrading, but that's probably the most extreme case of the balls interfering with robot design.

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

did any one else pop a yellow ball? i saw one get popped at VCU... that scares me cuz there pretty beafy balls

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

Yeah, one team (can't remember the number) had a hook paired with their ball-handling system, and they came down too fast and popped one of the balls with their hook (accidentially). It surprised everyone, even though severals teams popped their balls or had problems with them way before competition.

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

two yellow balls popped at the NJ regional

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

If i remember right as being on the field, i think it was more like 4 or 5 total that poped through out the event. It seems that most of the big balls that pop are not specifically from the bot it occurs with, yet in the previous match the ball is damaged and it completly fails in the following match.

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

That would be our bot, but yea... the past 2 days have been TERRIBLE to us because of this. Because of them sending us the wrong balls, we had to design the robot around what we were given and because those balls sent in the kit were so hard, we could never run them through the rollers... so we couldn't test it except with the one ball in the kit. We've completly revamped our robot at least 4 or 5 times in the past 2 days to get it to work, but nothing is working. So yea, I'm very very disappointed in this, because this competition is causing amazing troubles that would have all been avoided if we had been given the proper things. I just hope that by the end of tommorow or during practice day at our next regional we can actually get it to work... because otherwise this whole season we're in trouble... we've already messed up at least the qualifying rounds of this competition which disappoints me. But, you live and learn... so tommorow's a new day, we'll see what happens.

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

9 Big balls at BAE popped. Most of the pops we had were from Bots either fighting over it and eventually pinching it.

In the case of one or two teams they had a sharp corner exposed on there ball grabbing mechanism that popped a big ball or two.

Good thing we always stayed one ahead of the popping ones.

-Aaron

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

Down in the AZ regional our team (1343) has had serious problems with the 2x multiplier balls. Our robot is suction based and relied on suction to grab and move the 2x ball. For some reason the suction WILL NOT 'suck' onto the competition balls, but will get the practice balls everytime. Quite frustrating, so we've essentially disabled the arm and are simply herding balls now =/

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

Yeah I've been watching the Webcast for the UCF Regional and I was wondering what was up with your robot. Your idea is awesome but the poor robot can't spit the balls out. I thought you guys poorly implemented your rollers but I guess it wasn't that at all. I'm loving the massive hopper and I hope you can get all the kinks worked out. If so you guys will be a force to be reckoned with. Well I think it's crazy how much harder the competition balls have made the game this year. Also it seems like the balls are easier to pop this year.

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

Nice.

From my observations......
Gracious Professionalism + Spirit = Combbat

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

That's interesting. I would have thought that the new comp 2x balls would have been easier to suck on to, because they were much smoother (didn't have the ridges) than the practice yellow balls.

--Petey

Re: Thoughts on the competiton balls
 

Well, just so you know... we pretty much had to redesign our entire release system. We modified it into a "zipper" system. The net actually opens with a big zipper. We had it working for our final match, but because we were rushing so much our drive system went in the match... so we had it open, but we couldn't move around to just get the balls out. But, it's working... so tune in at South Carolina... it should be doing a really good job.