[dtengineering]

We've got a 2" single roller covered in roughtop on our practice bot, powered by the FP running a 26:1 banebots P60 and contacting the ball at a point about 6.5-6.75" above the ground.

We can slowly back up and turn without losing the ball, but have also found that we need to make sure that we come to a stop slowly if we want to keep control of the ball.

We're going to try changing the gear ratio... to 20:1 and then to 16:1 to see if that works better, as the ball does seem to be spinning a bit too slow at the moment.

I think this was the right year to build a practice bot... we've still got a couple weeks until Seattle to get everything worked out, and then we can bolt it all on when we get there.

Jason

P.S. BJC... I'm pleased to see our approach has been the same as yours. Your team might not remember it, but you were our very first ever alliance partners back in 2004 in Toronto. Your robot was totally awesome that year... although not, unfortunately, awesome enough to compensate for our penalty-inducing rookie ineptness. In any case, I don't think we've played with... or against... you since, but I still hold your team in very high regard.