[Joey1939]

In 2014, my team used two large pneumatic pistons on a catapult to launch the ball. We quickly discovered that every little advantage you give the piston in extending quickly makes a large difference. A piston by itself couldn't launch the ball with enough force. First, pistons can extend faster than they can pull, so make sure the catapult is setup to shoot when the piston extends. Second, holding the piston back for a second lets it build up pressure and extend more quickly when released. We tried using a gate latch but had so much trouble getting the gate latch to release when we wanted (In retrospect we should have used a little piston). Then in the offseason we used an electromagnet, which worked amazingly.