[eedoga]

Thanks,

We are currently using a venturi. It is a pneumatic suction cup used in industrial robotics for lifting things.

We will be moving away from it before competition though. The way the venturi works is by blowing air past a whole at the top of the suction cup. This creates a vacuum in the cup, but requires a constant flow of air. We are simply losing too much air picking up the ball which requires a really long recharging before we can reliably fire the ball.

We found a shopvac at home depot. It is called a "bucket head". It was about $20. When we opened it up we found that the impellor is held on with just one bolt and isn't even threadlockered.

We haven't gotten to test the new system yet, we will on Thursday night, our next meeting. I'll post more about how it goes.

Thanks for the feedback.

Edoga