Pickup System
 

Is anybody trying to pick the balls up off of the course? Has anybody prototyped anythign? Any feedback on this issue would be helpful.

Re: Pickup System
 

Check put "Behind the Design" Aim High edition. I think you will get allot of ideas from it.

Re: Pickup System
 

Where and what is that? Sounds interesting

Re: Pickup System
 

It's a book that shows the design process of a bunch of 2006 robots

http://www.amazon.com/FIRST-Robots-H.../dp/1592533663

very good reading for this year's game.

original question: we protoyped an intake roller, a piece of 3" ABS sewer pipe with window motor hubs attached to each end with L shaped brackets, and a piece of gum roughtop wheel tread (conveyor belt) screwed onto it. Worked well for pulling balls in and pushing them up a curved piece of Lexan behind it. Changing to a toughbox type transmission and a CIM so it would spin faster made it work even better.

Re: Pickup System
 

Well, grabbing a 2' piece of pool noodle with an electric drill and running it about 7" from the floor and 7" from a 'back wall' pulled in the ball and walked it right up the wall, no problem.

So some kind of roller system should work well. Just make sure it's fast!

Patrick

Re: Pickup System
 

We probably are going to do something to pick up balls...but we have yet to prototype it...a lot of our ideas were dropped by the no extending beyond chassis rule but we still have a few designs to put to the test.

Re: Pickup System
 

We removed the second stage on the toughbox (made it 3.57:1) and used one CIM with a 4" roller with wedge-top.

Crazy fast ball sucking action :D

Re: Pickup System
 

yeah...

basically i think all the teams are going to have roller systems to pick up the balls this year.

if you need ideas, try looking at the 2006 game "aim high"
there should be a lot of systems there that you can get inspiration from :]

Re: Pickup System
 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...84481934&hl=en

quick video of a single sided band system really manipulating the ball well, the system was actually designed to work at 90 degrees of this but i flip it on its front to prove it could go vert also.

Re: Pickup System
 

Thanks a lot! Our team has limited prototyping resources and expertise so this really helps.

Do you know how far those rollers were from the solid plate (ie how much did you compress the ball).

Thanks again!

Re: Pickup System
 

Wow! I didn't expect that this short video could be such assistance. Well, the plate is 8" away from the bottom of the rollers. The rollers were 2" plastic. I used solid because I plan on lathing out slots for tracks to keep the bands in line, but 2" PVC could be used in a pinch. The surgical tube were connected with a simple method I found here on chiefdelphi http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/32232 . Also, use rubber strips on the leading roller to help grab the ball. http://www.ifirobotics.com/robot-traction-wheels.shtml

Also prototypes are quite easy to build with the simplest of materials. The one in the video was made with some plastic scrap, plywood, surgical tubing (KOP), Pneumatic tubing (KOP), and a hot glue gun.

Good Luck

PS 1458build.blogspot.com there is a high quality picture of the prototype on this page

Re: Pickup System
 

I took apart a toughbox today, but it wasn't obvious to me how to remove the second stage, since the output shaft is not the same size as the cluster gear shaft. How do you remove the second stage of a toughbox, and still get the same output shaft?

Re: Pickup System
 

You remove the first stage....

Re: Pickup System
 

The trick is to turn the motor-plate upside down, so the pinions engage the output gear (the one on the output shaft) instead of the cluster gear.

You'll need to drill some holes in the aluminum plate so the CIM shafts don't rub on it.



Yikes, 1000th post!