[camtunkpa]

Originally Posted by Madison

I wanted to build this robot. It's uncanny how similar the design is to what we were working on early in the season -- before we decided to go catapult rather than spinning wheel, anyway. So, of course, I think it's awesome.

Some questions:
--What is the purpose of the vertical divider in the collector?
--How do you avoid jamming when going from three balls wide to a single ball shooter?
-- How do you load the shooter?

The vertical divider is there to prevent jamming when we unload into the shooter. We hold back one ball using the divider and lexan arm mounted on a servo. Holding back one ball is only one part of the solution to how we prevent jamming though.

The chute in between our collector and the shooter is critical. We spent two days cutting, bending and trying different chutes to get a consistent feed. We also added a small piece of 1/4" polycord to create a "speed bump" to slow the second ball from feeding at the exact same time as the first. I can tell you that the ball chute required much patience and tinkering.

We load the shooter using the most unique COTS part we've ever used on a robot...we use a dog food/water bowl mounted on an 8" stroke cylinder to throw the ball into the shooter wheel.

We got slightly concerned about how our spinning wheel would work based on how inconsistent the balls become after use, but so far it's not seeming to be a problem. I'm guessing that' because we have almost 2 inches of pinch on the ball.

John and Dustin can't wait to see you all at Chestnut Hills either I can't wait to see what your teams have come up with.