Re: Helical Loader Help
 

Or you can make a huge gumball machine. :)

If you do have questions about that robot, send a pm to Gabe and I am sure he will be get back to you with a full explanation of how it works. Good luck.

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

We just prototyped a helix system today with the center drum powered and it worked wonderfully. We used PEX tube which comes in 25 foot rolls and supported it with a wood frame. we used to separate runs, one under the ball and one on the outside of the ball to keep it in.

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

heh...thanks for proving the idea, we won't bother with finishing the wood prototype now, we'll just go ahead and build the final version :)

(and our wood one is pretty close to being put together)

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

My team is doing the same thing. There is a ton of math that we had to do with our loader considering dimensions because the ball must sit in a certain confined space given your "lead" height and the spinning mechanism's diameter. Draw a picture and just start drawing triangles (don't put in numbers until you have an equation :ahh: ). We were somewhat able to build a prototype but it was really shotty. ALSO remember, if you decide to cut out donuts and connect them, remember that their diameters will decrease the more your pull it out to "uncoil" it. Have fun and good luck wiht your design! :)

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

Yeah if anyone wants to see our helical prototype just look at this:

http://picasaweb.google.com/HannahGr...50009219016082

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

That's funny, we were talking about pool noodles for moving the balls around...but not in that configuration. Very clever!

And we GOTTA get some of that blue tubing

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

The blue tubing worked awesome. You can drill straight through it and it is already pretty close to the proper diameter. I will go ahead and say the pool noodles worked but it wasn't pretty

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

For some reason my team thought our design with the helical loader was going to be extremely unique :P. See you at competition!

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

In 2006 we experimented with and used a helix design. We cut and made support brackets out of aluminum angle. the parts of the helix were fastened together with pop rivets. we used a center drum made of aluminum sheet and drove the helix with the fisher price assembly. Balls were swept up from the floor using a conveyor as the drum assembly spun. Good Luck!

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

Another concept we're exploring is the ball stacking robot.

Re: Helical Loader Help
 

Video of the prototype test of our helical loader.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlUgVpRckS8