[beiju]

We have a surprisingly precise shooting system, even at high power, and I think our secret is our conduit guides. Most teams I've seen have either two sets of rotating wheels, which is inherently inaccurate because of the difficulty of syncing two motors, or a flat hood to guide the ball on the top. Rather than one hood, we have two pieces of conduit that roughly follow the curve of the wheels spaced between 3 and 4 inches apart. We have two shooting wheels on the same axle, between 2 and 3 inches apart, and the combination of those keeps the ball exiting the shooter very consistently.

Another thing we were careful about is avoiding any interference on the ball near the top of the shooter. The conduit is attached securely at the bottom so we don't need any attachments at the top that might contact the ball inconsistently and so throw off its trajectory.

Other specs:
-$@#2" squish factor
- 6" traction wheels, covered with duct tape because we were shredding balls
- 5000 rpm and ~150 oz-in of torque on the shooter (the torque is on the low side of what we would like)
- consistent feeding from a belt