pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I am very interested in the team on the left ramp, appearing to be team number 1332. They seem to have ramps that unroll out; something that is new to me. I searched their site but cannot find any photos on this specific ramp.

Does anyone have pictures of team 1332 and their ramps?

[Edit]: to answer your question, Travis; it always had.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I'd say they were well worth the effort of shaving off that last pound plus!;)

RAWC's got an awesome machine: incredibly fast, powerful, and maneuverable while extremely mass efficient all with the workmanship of a classic car. Your drivers were quite adept at eluding defenders and racing to the rack. Great robot and super team!

I hope to see RAWC in action again.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

It's good to see that y'all finally found the time to get them working and attached to the machines. :)

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

are you going to alt???

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Great Job! Those ramps look sweet, and your robot looks like an overall great competitor. How did you end up doing?

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I personally believe that their ramps were not neccasary. Their robot is a great scorer regardless of ramps. Having ramps forces a good scoring robot like 968 to have to go back and deploy ramps. Not to mention that most robots arent able to fit on their ramps. Nonetheless, it hides their incredibly elegant design and paintjob.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

While we did have to drive back to deploy the ramps, there were many times where tubes were so scattered on the rack that there would be no way to get 60 additional points in tubes.. even if you filled all of the available spider legs.

As far as most robots not being able to fit, at 38" wide, I disagree. We didn't have one robot fall off, and the few robots that did climb up seemed to have a pretty easy time doing so.

The great thing is the ramps are entirely passive from the rest of the robot. We pull 2 pins per side and they are gone. If we are on an alliance with ramps, we can remove them and drive (as we have been) at a light and fast 86 lbs.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Those are some very impressive ramps. Having the foresight to be able to remove them that easily is always a good thing during build. I have a couple of questions about them:

1. How do you drop the ramps? It sounds like you have servos which hold the ramps up, do they just release grip of the cables?
2. How do you fire the gas shocks? (This is the answer I'm really looking for...)
3. Also, what is the angle of the ramps?
4. How do robots get up them? Do they drive onto the incline and you fire the shocks?

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

To anwser:
1. we have a servo on the top which holds on to two cables. we release the servo and the ramps fall via gravity.
2. at the end of the ramp there is a leaver when switched will release the gas shocks.
3. around 17 degrees
4. the ramps start at an incline. they have to drive up and hit the leaver to activate the ramps.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

So the robot driving up activates the ramps. And if so can we see a picture of that?

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

i was glad to help put in the orders (though Kirk skipped the table to fill out the paper sometimes) and help provide the power services to get those ramps working. Great job. hope to see a great robot from you guys next year. Good luck in Atlanta.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I'm curious to know if this is solely a 968 thing, or if you colloborated with 254 on the ramps. I don't recall seeing any ramps on 254 at SVR nor did I hear about 254 having any ramps.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

254 did have the same ramps at SVR but couldn't get their gas spring release in working order, so they left them off.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I remember those ramps deploying for the first time, it was unforgettable. It made drilling into our robot's battery box worth it. And watching the refs trying to determine if both robots counted for the full 60 pts was kind of funny. It took like 4 refs to decide. Unfortunately one robot was slightly under the 12" mark but what can you do.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I thought that the ref's determined one of the lifted robots was barely touching the alliance station wall (via the infamous "sheet of paper test"), and was not awarded the bonus. That was a very tough break for your alliance in the first semi-final match, as those 30 pts would have resulted in a win. Unfortunately, Rule <G56> is rather unambiguous regarding the robot being "not in contact with any element of the field", which includes the wall.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I think 254 got there ramps working at the next regional but I'm not sure. It's something they'll have to clarify. Anyway 968 is gonna be a beast at Atlanta...

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

That was the case in the semi-finals, but this was a prelimary match Friday, where we could not leave our home zone because our ramps deployed in auto-mode by mistake.:ahh:

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

The saying "a jack of all trades is the master of none," this is definatley not true here, it's more like "jack of all and master of all." I didn't think any team could master ramps and capping tubes. You proved me wrong. I can't wait to see you in Atlanta.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Thanks for all the compliments! Unfortunately, at this point in time we do not qualify for ATL, do not have the money, and aren't very high on the waiting list.

Doesn't look like we will be going this year... :rolleyes:

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

That's sad to hear... You guys were amazing against us in the the semis. We leave you open for 1/2 a second and you broke away and scored. On top of that you're ramps worked with almost no time left.

Hopefully you find a way there.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I second what Adam said before me. You guys were incredible in the semis against our alliance and its unfortunate the way that first match ended - it sucks to have two rulings decide who wins. You guys were ridiculously tough to beat without the ramps and once you put them on it was fun to see what havoc you could wreak. Thanks for some of the most nervewracking semis matches ever, you have an awesome machine.

-1717

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Thanks guys. We had a lot of fun too. You guys didn't make it easy, that's for sure.

Do expect to see at least Kirk and I in Atlanta with the crew from 254. Any of you wanting technical info on the gearboxes should feel free to come by their pit. We will be there all three days in their pit as tech support while demoing the gearboxes and answering questions for people.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

You're going to have to ask Travis for that. :p

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I didn't notice any pics taken on my camera (I had the kids snapping pics for us on my camera all three days.) Jess did a pretty good job, I must say. He took the photo I uploaded above.

I am not sure if any of our other kids took video or not. One of our guys took some video in LA. I can only hope he took some video of SD as well. We can find out. I am somewhat curious myself.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

I believe we do have some video of it. One of our students was recording Saturday, and I believe that we had a parent recording 2 days and our advisor was recording as well. I'll see if I can get those.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Even without ramps you guys were tough to beat - in both LA and SD. I think you were the fastest bot at both. From picking up a tube to scoring it on the rack I clocked you around 4 seconds! It's too bad that you won't be heading to Atlanta.

Re: pic: 968 has ramps? Since when????
 

Most definitely. A few times I'd see a whole row about to get completed and think oh my gosh, they need to get back home to ramp (theirs or someone else's) and then I'd look at the clock and there would still be like 70 seconds left. :D