POLL: Shooting from...
 

Where are we all shooting from?

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

General area in the middle of the field. We can vary the speed of our shooter, so we should have decent range.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

i think most everyone will shoot from about the 15 foot range. I also think the 3 pt shot will be quite common and that this game will have high scoring to it

shaun

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

We, being a rookie team, don't have a way to reliable shoot the ball planned out yet. We're probably going to end up going for just the corner goals.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

I believe that once u go farther away you lose accuracy and at half field we were able to hit our target repeatedly with less then a 1 second between each ball. The accuracy of the game is going to be based on how many balls u shoot and if the device that is shooting the balls is up to the correct speed.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

Do you think that you will have greater chance of success, if you just dump a hopper full of balls into the lower the goals or if you stand in one place and continually shoot balls into the 3 point goal?

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

hitting the corner goals when we feel like it, mainly just messing up your shot from where ever you are open on the field ;) ...perhaps provide protection to a robot trying to defend an ally.

Why bothering scoring if you know that another team can score more accurately than you? Just a thought.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

3 pointers. For everyball you score, your opponent can score 3 points. If you score 20 balls at 1 point apeice, you get 20 points. If they shoot the same number of balls, and miss say, 10 of them, giving them a perfectly reasonable accuracy rating, they score 30 points. But I'd rather have a team on my alliance who could hold 20 balls, dump them, and climb the ramp, than a team that could shoot 15 balls through center goal, and not climb the ramp.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

What makes you think your opponents will allow you to do either? :)

I'm pushing (OK, "trying to convince") the team to be able to do both, just in case either is needed. We've spent a lot of time getting a shooter to work, now we have to work on the rest of it - scoring low goals, collecting balls, HP shooting, distributing balls to shooter and/or dumper - and of course, being able to program the whole mess. We'll see where it all ends up.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

If your alliance does not have the option to shoot 3 pointers, you better have the capability to get on that platform...
otherwise those 10 autonomous bonus points are going to mean a LOT more


And keep in mind there are both minimum and maximum ranges, especially if you have a fixed release angle.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

If you can reliably get ALL 10 of your balls in a corner goal during Autonomous every time, you will be a great asset to just about any alliance. This is even more true if you can do it in the goal on the far side of the field!

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

We have tried many different ways of shooting the ball including springs and pneumatics but they have all failed miserably. We are now attempting to use a motor to spin two wheels to try and shoot the ball, similar to a baseball gun at the batting cages. Are we heading in the right direction? Has this worked for one yet?

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

Yes, it will work.

Here's a hint on another direction: If you spin one wheel at about twice the speed you think the ball needs to fly, and mount a flat plate about six inches above the wheel, the ball will fly nicely and have really cool-looking backspin. The trick is to mount the right-sized plate the right height above the wheel at the correct angle. This takes some trial and error, but you should be able to do it in an afternoon. A single-wheel launcher is a lot easier to engineer than a two-wheel launcher. If you mount it near the bottom of your 'bot, you can take advantage of gravity feed, too.

I would post a picture of our single-wheel prototype, except that we seem to have dismantled it before taking a picture. Oops. It wasn't pretty, anyway. It would hit the 8-1/2 foot goal from more than 15 feet away, and this was with a bench grinder motor driving a steel rod using holes in plywood as bearings. With a proper motor (*cough* big CIM *cough*), some decent bearings, and the right drive mechanism (*cough* Gates timing belt *cough*), it will make a simple, reliable shooter.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

We plan to be able to shoot for the corners from most anywhere on the field. Lower point value, I know, but we plan on a rapidfire capability which should make it more interesting. We are only a rookie team too, so we decided to shy away from the higher goal.

Re: POLL: Shooting from...
 

If done right you should be able to hit all 10 balls in the 3 point hole from any starting place. That is what make robots good, they do repeat well.