[Rick]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

...used a similar looking material on their kop wheels to acquire the trackballs in 2008...

It looks like your entire upper assembly (loader and shooter) is on a turret... do you mind if I ask what the reasoning behind that decision was?

...I'm quite curious about your shooter and drive motors, your drive wheels, how you handle the wiring for the upper assembly, and your seemingly sheet metal outer frame (new for you guys, if I recall correctly).

To answer some questions:

Like all teams with wheeled shooters, the shooting distance will be dependent on the balls at the event.
The front bumpers are 8 inches long and are not beveled. The angle of the shot and tightness of the fabric may make the bumper appear as though it is beveled. The plywood and pool noodle are both cut to 8”.

The shooter wheels are standard rubber 8” AM wheels. The coloring you see on them is due to some rather extensive testing and our workspace (Navy warehouse – not the cleanest spot). Didn’t have time to clean before the glamour shot…
We decided to rotate the feed and the turret together to ensure the ball was consistently hitting the shooter wheels the same way on every shot. Also, if for some reason the turntable bearings broke (including our spares), or we needed to remove the turret feature due to weight, the turret could be mounted directly to the chassis.

The turret wiring is attached to the turret with powerpole connectors. This allow for a quick disconnect if needed. All wiring to the camera, LEDs, shooter motors runs through conduit on the sides of the turret.

The non kit chassis is a new endeavor for us. We received a CNC machine this fall and incorporated it into our workshop. If you look closely, you can see the weight reduction in the chassis, bridge device, and turret. The chassis plates are ¼” aluminum held together with extrude aluminum. It was nice being able to have a consistent hole pattern on all our machined parts.

The drive wheels are four 8” pneumatic wheels and two AM 8” plastic wheels. The plastic wheels are there to aid with turning. For the last 3 years, we have had this type of wheel in the back of the drive train with great success.

Nathan, stop by the pit and say hi. Our student pit crew can give you a tour of the machine. I will be by the 1519 pit to check out your machine as well.