Plaction wheel shooter?

[Leav]

Hello,

My team is a bit behind schedule, and we have not finished our shooter yet.

We meant to use 8" AM pneumatic wheels directly driven from cim motors, but that caused very strong vibrations, which we didn't like.

We tested the same setup with 8" AM Plaction wheels and the vibration was considerably lower.

We would like to use the plaction wheels, but I'm afraid that they won't work as well as pneumatic wheels, and we won't be able to test for a few more days.

So... has anyone seen, used, tested or heard of an 8" plaction wheel shooter?
I'd like to try and gain some 2nd hand experience here in order to make the better decision early on.

Thanks,
-Leav

[Garrett.d.w]

We are running 6" performance wheels from am and are having good results with it (not half court shots, but we can score reliably). I'd assume that you'd see similar results with 8'' plactions.

[Joe.Quirk]

we used an 8 in plaction in our first round shooter test and it worked really well. we could make shoots consistently from the sides of the pyramid and behind it.

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by Leav

Hello,

My team is a bit behind schedule, and we have not finished our shooter yet.

We meant to use 8" AM pneumatic wheels directly driven from cim motors, but that caused very strong vibrations, which we didn't like.

We tested the same setup with 8" AM Plaction wheels and the vibration was considerably lower.

We would like to use the plaction wheels, but I'm afraid that they won't work as well as pneumatic wheels, and we won't be able to test for a few more days.

So... has anyone seen, used, tested or heard of an 8" plaction wheel shooter?
I'd like to try and gain some 2nd hand experience here in order to make the better decision early on.

Thanks,
-Leav

You could try balancing the wheel as Andy talked about. And spin them a little slower, with both ends of the shaft supported.

[Orion.DeYoe]

Originally Posted by Leav

Hello,

My team is a bit behind schedule, and we have not finished our shooter yet.

We meant to use 8" AM pneumatic wheels directly driven from cim motors, but that caused very strong vibrations, which we didn't like.

We tested the same setup with 8" AM Plaction wheels and the vibration was considerably lower.

We would like to use the plaction wheels, but I'm afraid that they won't work as well as pneumatic wheels, and we won't be able to test for a few more days.

So... has anyone seen, used, tested or heard of an 8" plaction wheel shooter?
I'd like to try and gain some 2nd hand experience here in order to make the better decision early on.

Thanks,
-Leav

My team has done extensive prototyping in shooters this year. Although we haven't prototyped an 8 inch plaction wheel shooter we have messed around with other 6-8 inch "hard" (non-pneumatic) wheels. Through our observations it seems that you have to have some sort of give in the system (other than in the frisbee). When using pneumatic wheels the give is in the wheel. When using harder wheels you have to have give in the wall opposite your shooter. My team achieved this using a strip of pool noodle cut to a rectanglar cross-section of about 3/8 x 2 inches.

[jkessler_22]

Originally Posted by Leav

Hello,

My team is a bit behind schedule, and we have not finished our shooter yet.

We meant to use 8" AM pneumatic wheels directly driven from cim motors, but that caused very strong vibrations, which we didn't like.

We tested the same setup with 8" AM Plaction wheels and the vibration was considerably lower.

We would like to use the plaction wheels, but I'm afraid that they won't work as well as pneumatic wheels, and we won't be able to test for a few more days.

So... has anyone seen, used, tested or heard of an 8" plaction wheel shooter?
I'd like to try and gain some 2nd hand experience here in order to make the better decision early on.

Thanks,
-Leav

Our team was using a Plaction wheel until the tread separated at the stapled connection and gave one of the mentors a pretty nasty "rug burn". We went to the pneumatic wheels and balanced them initially by adding 0.75 oz of automotive stick-on weights (Harbor Freight has them) to the opening in the hub directly across from the valve. That seemed to work much more smoothly, but we will probably try to fine tune the balance before competition.

[GilaMonsterAlex]

We are using 8" FIRST rubber wheels with added on belting, and these work great. It was not much different than the pneumatic wheels as far as distance goes. We also mount them low on the frisbee.

[Cal578]

Alex,
What belting are you using, and how did you mount it to the wheel? We might want to do something similar, but I'm wondering about the safety issues that others have mentioned (tread tearing off at high speed). What is the highest RPM you have tested with this belting?

[thedude019]

just make sure the plaction tread is on correctly if not the tread can fly off and hit you like it happened to me and leave a nice mark

[Cal578]

Luke,
Did you find a way to install the plaction tread "correctly"?

Correct == Safe && Effective

[SailorDad]

We're using AndyMark's pneumatic wheel and found it works well without the innertube and it doesn't require balancing.

[wonder-weasel]

We're using 8" plactions and are doing quite well with them. Our controls group has been using our prototype to gather some data as we haven't received our machined shooter parts yet. We've been shooting pretty accurately and distance wise, they're good.

[S2K JDM]

We are using a 6" performance wheel with the wedgetop tread and its pretty good. we can shoot half court reliably. also we riveted the tread on. there's no vibrations, and its super quiet.

[MrTechCenter]

We made a prototype shooter using an 8 inch plaction wheel a few weeks ago.

We have slow-mo video available here: http://www.youtube.com/user/EagleFor.../videos?view=0

We have changed our shooter design, but the plaction wheel worked fairly well.

[GilaMonsterAlex]

Originally Posted by Cal578

Alex,
What belting are you using, and how did you mount it to the wheel? We might want to do something similar, but I'm wondering about the safety issues that others have mentioned (tread tearing off at high speed). What is the highest RPM you have tested with this belting?

Cal,

We use the wedgetop from AndyMark (as it's already cut into a straight 1" strip) and drill and rivet to the wheel over a 3" interval. We normally use these on our drivetrain.

We are currently spinning them at roughly 4000 rpm, without any separation.