Well, we captured a full system test of our launcher tonight. Some details:
- We used a 3-stage ball shifter (
http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexpro/ge...l-shifter.html) with the 64:20 ratio for the third stage.
- 1 CIM motor
- Normal pancake cylinder to shift
- Shift form high speed to neutral, with a ratchet wrench to hold the launcher in place
- Custom made 3D printed spool and webbing guide to ensure it all pulls down correctly without getting tangled
- A secondary webbing strap at a fixed (manually adjustable between matches, but otherwise fixed) length to act as a hard stop for getting the release angle we want
Now for the test... we pressurized the system to 60 PSI using our shop compressor. We then trigger the shifting manually with the buttons on the solenoids. We've had it shift successfully all the way down to 20 PSI.
We hooked the CIM up to a battery through an old drill handle - the handle's seen some abuse (we really need to find a "new" old drill handle), so it doesn't really have variable speed control anymore. That's why the start is a little jerky... all due to operator (me) error, not the system!
http://vimeo.com/85989481