pic: Hopper design
 

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

Looks interesting.

Just curious, is there any protection against the balls getting knocked out of the channel (by, say, a good whack from the opposition)?

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

not quite yet but we made this just yesterday and it needs slight tweaking.

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

I have one idea to prevent them from getting out, have something above the balls so that if they were knocked, they would hit the top bar, and go back onto the system.

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

This is true.. Thanks for your imput

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

We're trying a similar design for our ball holder (the ball trough will wrap around the outside of our robot though, not in a center spiral). We plan on stretching some kind of bungie cords or stretchy tubing over the top to keep them in (that way the top can be moved to remove balls at the end of the match, since you must be able to do this without power).

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

Is that a prototype or a production piece? Don't forget the role of fabric as a ball guide. It's light, cheap and can be installed with wire ties. Nice design -- very similar to one of our seeming endless number of prototypes. (Our "storage room" is nearly full of plywood-and-baling-wire prototypes.)

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

At this point, its a prototype. Our team has decided on just about every design except the hopper and pickup mechanisms. Both essential to the game. This hopper can be made into any relative shape(for space reasons) as long as gravity can power it.

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

WOW! a Helical hopper MADE OF PVC!!!!! that is the coolest Robot part i have seen this year, Kudos

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

That drill there being used to hold the balls from not falling is my favorite part :P

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

Wow that seems like it would really work efficiently. My team came up with something similar, but in order for our other mechanisms to fit, we had to scrap the design :(

oh well, I guess its all fine as long as the new design works...

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

no way
we had the same design in the beginning
that is so crazy
<3

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

why not use the rubber surgical tubing in the kit?

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

i don't understand how you would get the balls up into that contraption... does it rotate?

Re: pic: Hopper design
 

I'm pretty sure it goes down the contraption.