Our climber was a little "Rube Goldberg" this year.
The main system was two 30" pieces of box tubing that with two gas shocks creating an over center linkage so the climber could be "locked" down. A 2" throw piston pushed up on one end of the stowed climber to get it started. The other side the base of the box tube assembly was attached to an 8020 slide. This got us up close to the bar and we used a torsion spring attached to another short piece of box tube to deploy our hook onto the bar which was released with a spring loaded piston.
A video of it deploying can be found
here.
The cable ran from the hook down through a delrin block in the top of the first box tube stage. To put tension on the arm and keep it from being destroyed as the robot lifted up we used a cord running from the top of that first stage down to the middle of the robot. You can see the cable
here.
The winch was a 27:1 banebots with a CIM motor with a 1/2" wrench on the output shaft to keep it from back driving. The hook us just held in with velcro so it comes loose when we start winching in.
During our first few events we had to add a lot to get this system to work just right. Pre-Reading we added some surgical tubing to assist the 8020 sliding across the back.
After a few successful climbs at Reading the hook started missing the bar as it rotated around. We adjust the curvature of the hook but the big change was adding a long piston that pushed the assembly towards the bar and put pressure on the support cord. This kept the assembly upright while we deployed our hook and prevented it from swaying.
Going into Rhode Island we added a small piston that kept the climber from deploying early. During our first match of the year the climber wasn't locked down all the way so it popped up as we crossed a defense in autonomous. We survived Reading by placing a tiny strip of painters tape between the two stages to keep them from moving and the piston would rip it during the extension.
Before Boston we had a few failed climbs because our wrench flipped directions during the match even with some tape holding it. We decided to get rid of convenience and put a wrench on without the switch. Our consistency peaked during Boston with only one or two failed climbs from a bad lineup on the side.
The rest of the year we saw some wear and tear on few parts but it still works well.