Fans for defense

[mikekim]

Just wondering if any teams have tried to use a high power fan system defensively in this competition.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by mikekim

Just wondering if any teams have tried to use a high power fan system defensively in this competition.

Yes we (1729) did

If you want the specs, PM me.

[Alex_2487]

we considered using one but decided not to based on the fact that the balls have large holes in them.

edit: i just realized the mike from my team is the starter of this topic

[Dantvman27]

We did and they worked great, if done right. We were able to get between a robot and its trailer, turn on the fans and push a team halfway down the field by its trailer. Theres alot more to building the fans than just slapping a motor on a blade. My team did alot of research

heres a video of them running in the pit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnw7ieccNNc

[martin417]

It depends on what you mean by "defense". We had two FP driven propellers on our bot that provided 6-8 lb.s of thrust. At one point, when our ball intake broke, our driver pushed 1319 (flash) all the way down the field sideways, to the human player, who then scored two super cells.

If, on the other hand, you mean using an air stream to deflect orbit balls, then no. We did some experimentation using a 3 hp leaf blower. While you could push the orbit balls around on the ground easily enough, we were not able to change the trajectory of an incoming orbit ball enough to make much difference. We decided that it wasn't worth pursuing.

[XXShadowXX]

I know the robodawgs were trying, but i saw one of their team members walking around with it (wired to a switch and a battery in his backpack), it made a huge amount of thrust, but i really never saw it work.

[Jetweb]

A bunch have tried. my favorite is 180, basically you went where they wanted you to go. On another note with our basket dumper we cant dump on them while this fan is running (from directly behind). You can throw balls in to the trailer though

[Zflash]

Originally Posted by martin417

It depends on what you mean by "defense". We had two FP driven propellers on our bot that provided 6-8 lb.s of thrust. At one point, when our ball intake broke, our driver pushed 1319 (flash) all the way down the field sideways, to the human player, who then scored two super cells.

First let me say congrats on the win and building a great robot.

Second I feel I have to mention that I believe you were able to push us that way simply because our driver did not know how to maneuver out of it. Maneuvering out of it would have been possible and he was a rookie driver. The fans had nothing to do with it. Had you tried that again you would not have been as successfull.

and Third if you guys keep posting your different strategies on here people our gonna know what to expect. I would be cool to see a team from the South even if you are on the "wrong side of the border" win it all but that will be more difficult if you don't keep some stratgy up your sleeve. Good luck

[roboraven15]

469 Las Guerillas is using 2 fans for thrust. I'm not sure how well its working i didn't see any huge differences, but it was pretty cool either way, cause they were very little of there weight, so they had a heavy complex shooter and storage aswell.

[santosh]

Originally Posted by Zflash

Second I feel I have to mention that I believe you were able to push us that way simply because our driver did not know how to maneuver out of it. Maneuvering out of it would have been possible and he was a rookie driver. The fans had nothing to do with it. Had you tried that again you would not have been as successfull.

Yeah, but they did it and scored 2 super cells on you...

[Zflash]

Originally Posted by santosh

Yeah, but they did it and scored 2 super cells on you...

I never said that they didn't in fact I agreed that they did. However this thread was about the effects that fans had and I just pointed out that fans had nothing to do with them accomplishing that task.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Zflash

I never said that they didn't in fact I agreed that they did. However this thread was about the effects that fans had and I just pointed out that fans had nothing to do with them accomplishing that task.

Just curious, how would you get out of a situation like that? Hard to see how a pin from 1771 (yeah I watched all their matches) is escapable when they are pushing full force with fans + accelerating. I wanna know how to get out of one of their pins just incase we ever have to face these guys.

[sdcantrell56]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Just curious, how would you get out of a situation like that? Hard to see how a pin from 1771 (yeah I watched all their matches) is escapable when they are pushing full force with fans + accelerating. I wanna know how to get out of one of their pins just incase we ever have to face these guys.

Akash the secret is that there is no way to escape. When we have our fans going and we're pushing someone, we are accelerating close to %50 faster than any other robots. If you can't accelerate faster than us, which is near impossible to do when being pushed sideways, you are going where ever we want, which just so happened to be in front of our human player. In short a different driver would not have made any difference.

[Zflash]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Just curious, how would you get out of a situation like that? Hard to see how a pin from 1771 (yeah I watched all their matches) is escapable when they are pushing full force with fans + accelerating. I wanna know how to get out of one of their pins just incase we ever have to face these guys.

Well since there was plenty of field open while they were pushing us then we could have avoided the pin to begin with while they were pushing us toward the wall I am sure you can figure out how that would have worked out. However since you pretty much believe that there is no way out of it then I will not even try to explain it. Also knowing your relationship with 1771 I doubt anything I say would even be belived by you. Somehow this thread has turned into a different topic then previously discussed hope this hasn't affected it too much.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Zflash

Well since there was plenty of field open while they were pushing us then we could have avoided the pin to begin with while they were pushing us toward the wall I am sure you can figure out how that would have worked out. However since you pretty much believe that there is no way out of it then I will not even try to explain it. Also knowing your relationship with 1771 I doubt anything I say would even be belived by you. Somehow this thread has turned into a different topic then previously discussed hope this hasn't affected it too much.

Excuse me? I specifically asked how to get out of one of their pins because I want to know. We've had HUGE problems getting out of pins especially at NJ and PA and I want to know how to get out of pins. For example, 1279 who used fans killed us in Philly quarterfinals by pinning and scoring like crazy and in NJ 2753 and 2344 forced us into pins in the Semi's. Don't assume things because I am friends with them please, I like your team and robot too.

2753 is currently fanless but they pin like mad.