Team 997 Lifter
 

This is our lifter.
It starts out in a folded up position and plays defense throughout the match.
near the end of the round it returns to the home zone and deploys two, (approximately) 4 foot tall "wing" which are raised using 4, 11 inch stroke/1.5 inch bore pneumatic pistons. The platforms are made out of a honeycombed cardboard center with either plexy glass or carbon fiber material on the top and bottom. They are strong and weigh between 4-5 pounds each. It can lift both platforms individually without tipping the robot. It sits on a track system with 4 cim motor and the Andy Mark 2-speed drive trains, although we did remove the higher speed to take off weight, and in high speed it was to fast to control.

It was designed to do one thing, and one thing well. :cool:

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Beautiful bot guys, its was fun being pit neighbors

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

how do you get your partners over 12" high when it looks like you start at 1" high and stroke out 11" ?

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Same to you 1983,
you guys had an awesome pit (i think you even won an award for its colors?)
and that bot really came together on the first day, I really liked the idea for grabbing tubes then turning them sideways to score. The way your crate held all your tools and had places to hang everything was really a space saver, but did you guys have to pay overages on shipping costs?
BTW your mascot really rocked ;)

Out pistons start out fully contracted when the platform is on the floor, then we have our 1 inch Angle Stock and the .5 inches from the platform material. this gives us a little leeway, just for good measure.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

I was glad to be in Portland to watch your robot in action. The final match really amazing! Best of luck at Nationals.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

im not sure about overages but if there are any they are worth it. And yes we did win the imagery award.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Looks great. :)
We considered this when we were in the prototyping stage. The biggest draw back we thought would be if someone hit one of the wing end cylinders and bent it.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

actually, we have support and protection when raising and lowering the platforms, they are attached to the feet at the bottom...

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Did you guys say you used carbon fiber? what are the rules on that? someone told me that it was illegal i might be mistaken but ye?

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Yeah one of our platforms is carbon fiber coated, and one is fiberglass coated(I said plexy glass the first time, my bad)
I don't think that it is illegal to use but I have not looked it up... yet

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Carbon Fiber is ok
Way to go 997, glad to see an Outback MFG team make it!

We'll be seeing you guys (and gals) in Davis, this time w/ a robot that can do more then drive around w/ tracks. :)

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

How do you guys lower your platforms?

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

696 used pneumatic lifters too. We (1070) have a lift similar to yours but we powered it with two CIM motors.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

ok a bit of suggestion if u have the weight, add a small ramp so bots can get on it easier, alot of bots that i have noticed have under a inch of ground clearance

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Just dump the air, no?

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

We did add ramps during day 2 of the PNW regional. They worked quite well and we will be making them even better for the Davis regional and championship event!

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Clarification: How do you deploy your platforms from the vertical position they begin in to the horizontal position they are in when actually lifting 'bots? is it just a "let it fall and hope it doesnt break" sort of thing, or is there some other system I'm missing in the pic?

//Dillon Compton

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

997, your robot rocked. I remember seeing you guys at the scrimmage a couple weeks before the regional and our entire team agreed that you'd be going into the finals, if not winning. *and you won*

We'll be seeing you at the Davis Sacramento Regional. Hopefully we'll have match or two with you this time. Good luck!

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

looks good see you at davis :)

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

one the support pieces for the feet stick out completely to the other platform where we have a pneumatic cylinder that shoots through a whole in the rod, and they are pulled apart by a budgie cord, when we retract the pneumatics, the bungee pulls them apart.
and yeah they just fall, but we looked at all of our parts and they don't hit to hard, they are just like big flaps so the air resistance helps out, also nothing is welded together so we don't have to worry about any of it cracking

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

this B...E...A...utiful just won it's second regional :-)
and for being the first year our team has ever won a regional we are really, really happy.
Nationals Here We Come

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

It was great being with you guys at Davis, the only question I had after seeing it was how does it continue going up after the power is off?

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Once the air flow to the cylinder is opened, after power is cut, the cylinder will continue to be filled until the system is out of stored air.

This will happen as long as the solenoid is triggered before power is cut off.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

It's probably* because the valves do not close when power is removed. As a result, the air in the tanks keeps flowing into the pistons, even when power is cut.

*Speculation, but it fits the scenario.

Re: Team 997 Lifter
 

Congrats on the double wins!! Thats awesome!! We were super fortunate to come out with a win in Vegas (and Rookie All Star) to go with the Imagery from Portland, so we'll be seeing you in Atlanta!

About the overages... we do pay overages, but it's mainly because we had a ton of extra materials shoved in there and everything... but as Dave said, it's definitely worth it. It's a lot less stressful if you're at least a little organized. We're fortunate to have an awesome coach who's had a little experience and came up with the whole crate idea.

Good luck in Atlanta, we can't wait to be there! The mascot will be there too, we'll make sure to send it your way sometime! :D