Team 1250 just joined the club at MSC!
We removed our old scaling system which didn't work. (It was 2 pneumatic tubes with hooks at the ends of them both. The hooks would get rotated and misaligned resulting in a failed scale. The entire process was very slow.)
We prototyped our new system on a wood mock-up of our main robot arm and practice bot chassis, put 140 pounds on it and it lifted like a charm! (Yes it was slightly excessive but the bot does weigh less than 120 lbs)
How it works is the scaling arm sits within the main lifting arm of the robot with a strap connected to it and a winch at the base of the chassis. The main arm raises to a certain degree set after twisting the action button 'Scale Extend', then the scaling arm deploys by releasing a door lock at the end of the robot and swings upward.
The driver has a secondary function to 'bump' the main arm up a few degrees to help latch the yellow hooks onto the rung. Once hooked, the 'Scale Extend' twist button is pressed down and the winch lifts the entire robot up. After the desired height has been reached, the action button for the low bar degree set stops the winch and finishes the scale.
Personally, I stop the lifting motion after 1 brick is showing below the bot giving a clear indication that we have scaled and no damage will occur to the robot.
The entire process from start to finish takes around 8-10 seconds
MSC - Qualification Match 192