How to construct a turret?

[Zuelu562]

Disclaimer: I haven't looked at 1717 and 1323's turrets.

A motor and a belt going around what you plan to turn is enough to turn it.

You can math out how much it will turn in a certain period and then hard code any specific increment into the code, such that each button push moves it X degrees. It can also be done with shaft encoders and gyros, both which with some math can tell you the exact same thing, with some precision.

[dez250]

Here is a nice photo of FRC25 from 2006, it should give you some ideas.

[Jon Stratis]

We had a turret for Lunacy - essentially, we took a lazy susan and riveted some belting around the outside. That belting went out to a small sprocket on a slow turning motor. Hook up an encoder to that motor, and you have some great control - due to the size difference (12" outer diameter for the lazy susan, 1 inch diameter for the motor sprocket), it took a ton of turns of the motor to get the turret through its entire arc, which allows you a lot of precision.

[TheOtherGuy]

In 2009, 1726 made a turret out of a swamp cooler pulley. Here's the end result. We cut the spokes out of the middle and used the remaining bit of them to mount the turret, then attached bearings in strategic locations around the belt. There was slight wearing from the pulley-on-bearing action, but it was minimal.