So how many of you actually have a working minibot/deployment?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

I think there were two (2) successful MINIBOT deployments at the RaChaCha Rally (a big thanks to 1511 for hosting!)

We did it once, and then tried something different where we thought that perhaps our MINIBOT might fall out... and it did... After that we didn't load it onto the robot again, happy that what we have works the way we want it to work.

Other than that and one team I didn't get a chance to see, quite a few attempts but nothing successful.

191 managed to put up two complete logos, though, with an autonomous ubertube scored -- very impressive!

MINIBOT RACE!!!

[Grim Tuesday]

Haha nice one Koko. I hope that we see more minibots (and successful deployments) at FLR.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by Bruceb

We have one.
See it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvrbb9g9EHM

Hope I did that right.


Bruce

You may want to reference this answer in Q&A.


http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=16981

If your minibot is above the plane of the deployment line when it crosses the plane of the tower it is illegal.

[Alex270]

1987 has one. It doesn't work too bad (deploys and climbs in about 3.5-4.5 seconds). We may tweak the design a bit though to improve this.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

MINIBOT RACE!!!

Sweet! We spent today making it (almost) twice as fast... Almost exactly 2.0 seconds with deployment.

No FTC team, no extra money, no time, no minibot.

Though we did have an idea for a trap-launcher like arm that puts the minibot on the pole.

[Saber Robotics]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Get more motors. Break them instead of your 4 second minibot. You can't learn anything without breaking some stuff.

Inside you'll find four gears. Most of them match up with the others easily - that is, they (almost) all have the same "pitch". So, no need to buy more gears.

Play around with them for a while, figure out the output gear ratios for different combinations that can work, and write them down. (Note that the 'height' of the gears might not be right, sometimes you need to make spacers for the gears to get them the right height. The gear on the output shaft might need to be pressed off and you'll have to figure out how to hold it on at a different spot)

Then do the same for the tetrix gears and wheel combinations, then calculate the 'motor to wheel' gear ratios.

Pick a bunch of them - one at each end, a couple in the middle - to try out, see which works best. Keep careful notes of everything you do. Once you have the 'best', try more ratios that are closer to the 'best', and find the 'new best'. repeat until you have the best of the best, and build your minibot.

Does this process make sense to you? Of course, you need to do perhaps ten of these 'experiments' a day. Try to keep the weight of the frame of the minibot the same, make a switch system to start and stop it automatically, use a fresh battery every 4-5 runs, all to eliminate any variables that could fool you.

Good Luck.

Now that helps a lot! Thanks so much and I believe in my minibot team to figure it out.

[Ashley Painter]

3784 has a mini bot and deployment system. We've been tweeking it some but we've had the mini bot done for weeks.