[Donut]

I'll echo the previous comments in that the main difference between side vs. top shooters is the potential spin on the ball, and the height of the shooter. We are leaning towards a top shooter because of the ease in imparting backspin.

As for skepticism on the design working at all, mine is gone after testing a prototype of ours today. We built a vertical shooter (2 wheels above, 2 below, all 8") with 2 CIMs through CIMple Box transmissions direct driving the wheels and placed a basketball hoop such that it was the equivalent of firing at the top hoop from the key. I was concerned that there would be too much variation in shot placement with all speed/angle variables being the same, and in our initial tests where we fed the ball in by hand the results weren't too pleasing, with some shots flying over the backboard while others fell short. We saw ball feeding as a big issue and added a guide chute behind the shooter to consistently feed the balls in the same spot, then fed them in by pushing with a PVC pipe during our second test. This made an enormous difference as we tested about 30 shots and made 50% of them into the basket. All the missed shots landed on either the back or front of the rim as well so even for the shots that missed there was relatively little variation in ball placement. Considering that we were shooting at less than a 45 degree angle and had no spin on the shots I'm sold on the feasibility of a shooter working this year.