Re: Ball Magnet
 

Bryan,

In the offseason of 2009 we had our banebot gearboxes fail on us, not the new p60 ones. So we ripped the first two stages of the plastic kop gearboxes and made some new gearboxes.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/34184

For this year we are taking two mabuchi's and gearing it to a 3-4:1. To work on your design, I would recommend getting some sort of roller setup and powering it with a drill.

-RC

Re: Ball Magnet
 

1583 is also using a ball magnet (or as we call it 'dribbler'). Our system consist of two Banebot 20:1 gearboxes powering two of their 3 7/8 inch wheels. We currently are using 385 motors on our prototype but will use the Fisher Price motors on our competition robot. The wheels make contact on the ball about four inches apart and about 2/3 of the way up the ball. We have a 'proof of concept' device up and operating. The device back spins the ball fairly fast and because of this it really 'sticks' the ball to the robot. We are using a holonomic octagon shaped chassis and are confident the ball will turn with the robot. We took some video today of the device 'sticking' the ball and then shooting. I'll load the video on youtube and provide a link.

Re: Ball Magnet
 

thanks RC - I appreciate the feedback. I'll use your advice and use a drill to do the mock up - but we will need to get creative I think with mounting something for the competition bot. should be fun!

Re: Ball Magnet
 

Here's the video I promissed of 1583's chassis/magnet/shooter protoypes in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC52tUnVAzk

Re: Ball Magnet
 

It seems that the roller method is going to be used by alot of teams. Will refs assume that since you have this roller device you are possessing the ball. What if your roller is two or three balls wide and you turn it off to herd two balls? Will a ref be able to tell the difference when you are moving forward? What if your roller isn't that good? If you back-up and the ball rolls toward you are you in some form of possesion? Maybe this method isn't possesion but herding 2.0.

Re: Ball Magnet
 

Refs can only rule multiple POSESSION if the balls stick with the robot as it turns or moves backward.

The rules define possesion as the ball staying in contact with the robot as it turns or moves backward. So by definition, the balls are POSESSED.

Re: Ball Magnet
 

That's a very good mechanism. May I inquire as to what you are using to $@#$@#$@#$@# back the mechanism and launch it?

Re: Ball Magnet
 

ttldomination....when the video was made we were using the KOP window motor/gearbox as the power source to $@#$@#$@#$@# the surgical tubing. In 2008 the team next to us at the Denver regional was 1625 Winnovation. We are using the same concept they used on their 2008 robot to launch the ball over the overpass. It's a really simple and effective design.

The only limitation to our prototype mechanism was range. As you can see from the video it would only launch the ball about 8 feet. We've since designed an improved cocker/trigger that uses a CIM hooked to an AM toughbox. Since the toughbox has straight cut gears we also had to design a device to keep the stretched tubing from back driving the gearbox. The improved devices are now installed and our students will test the mechaism Monday. The ump of the improved cocking device should enable us to launch a ball full court. One of our design goals is to shoot all three balls from the far zone in the 15 second autonomous period. I think we have the right stuff to do that now.

Let me know if you need more information. We could take and post a picture of the cocking/trigger mechanism if that would help. You can't see any of that in the video.

Re: Ball Magnet
 

We're going to make ours just less than two balls wide, so we don't have to worry about it.

Re: Ball Magnet
 

I would love to see the mechanism you guys are using.

We're having trouble with our release and we'd love to see a mechanism that actually works.

Thanks.