Ball Pitcher Hood Design

[Tom I]

Originally Posted by squirrel

With no feedback on the motor, we have to let the motor get back to speed for about two seconds before making the second shot, or it will be short.

Have you thought about using 2 FP's to power the thrower? That would get you double the power, thus allowing double the torque for a set speed. That should reduce the time between shots. I know you were concerned about needing another FP somewhere else, but per the game design rules (R48) you're allowed 2 FP's and 2 AndyMark motors, which are relatively the same in output. Hopefully this should mitigate any hesitation for using both allowed FP's.

up to 2 FisherPrice motors (acceptable part #s are 000968-9012, 00968-9013, 00801-0673, and 00968-9015),
up to 2 AndyMark motors (acceptable part # is am-0912),

[MrForbes]

We have thought about it, but having speed control will still be an issue...battery voltage fluctuates during a match, etc. It looks like a single FP motor is powerful enough.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by squirrel

We have thought about it, but having speed control will still be an issue...battery voltage fluctuates during a match, etc. It looks like a single FP motor is powerful enough.

Jim,

Are you running your present set-up at full voltage? Or did you do your testing at, say, 9 volts, to leave some headroom for a speed controller in case you needed it?

[Chris is me]

Has anyone tried a Colson as a shooter wheel? We thought their greater mass near the edges would make it a decent "natural" flywheel.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Has anyone tried a Colson as a shooter wheel? We thought their greater mass near the edges would make it a decent "natural" flywheel.

We tried a 4" Colson in our lab. Gripped the ball well. Speeds started to get a bit crazy though in terms of RPM to get the shot we wanted with a 4". I imagine they'll work just fine for a shooter, among other things.

-Brando

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Ether

Jim,

Are you running your present set-up at full voltage? Or did you do your testing at, say, 9 volts, to leave some headroom for a speed controller in case you needed it?

We have it on a speed controller, and we can get sufficient distance running the motor below full speed. I dont know how much it is below full speed yet.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

We tried a 4" Colson in our lab. Gripped the ball well. Speeds started to get a bit crazy though in terms of RPM to get the shot we wanted with a 4" though. I imagine they'll work just fine for a shooter, among other things.

-Brando

Neat. We're using 6" colsons extensively on our robot this year, but haven't gotten them all plugged up and ready for hex yet, so it's good to have a positive review.

[Ty Tremblay]

Has anyone tried to use the BaneBots wheels on their shooter? I have a feeling that their softness may result in marks.

[Andrew Bates]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

Has anyone tried to use the BaneBots wheels on their shooter? I have a feeling that their softness may result in marks.

We used BaneBots wheels in 2009. Never had any issues with them marking the orbit balls. Now obviously these balls are different, however I wouldn't expect the wheels to leave marks on the balls. Taking chunks out or pulling skin off? That's another matter that you would have to determine through testing.

[nixiebunny]

I'm new at this, but have a couple mentors who built a decent shooter for Lunacy. We made a prototype 4" ABS pipe shooter wheel, lined with 3M grey tub grip tape from Ace. It is very gentle on the balls, yet very grippy.

Our prototype has 1" compression against two curved 1/2" EMT conduit rails spaced 4" apart for the top of the shooter ball path. This gives the ball a trough to roll in, which makes for very accurate azimuth control of ball path.

I'm thinking of using a 2012 orange-ring Fisher Price motor with ~4:1 reduction, but we'll see what's possible to make in a short time. McMaster Carr sells 32 pitch nylon and metal gears that should mate with the FP motor pinion, if my math is correct.

We also plan to try the Jaguar speed control feature. It should provide hours of amusement to get that working well.

[Chris_Ely]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

Video or it didn't happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvnbttY_4Ks
Video, heres your proof.

[DavisC]

The other day I had together a 4 wheel/2 motor Banebot (550s) with 4:1 ratios. We were using the wheels that came in the new KOP and we could easily launch it starting at a height of 0 and hitting the wall 30' away at 5' up.
But in front of the shooter it looked like someone tried to make orange snow from the foam basketball.
We plan on trying the grey rubber wheels or the plastic lunacy wheels.

[Kevin Ray]

We too had issues with the shooter "spraying orange snow" with high speed but realized that it was a function of a too low friction cooeficient between the wheel and the ball. The wheel we used was the AM Performance with the grippy tread. We realized that the "tips" of the grippy part of the tread was acting like a chain saw blade and having its way with the ball. Rather than slow down the wheel or change the tread, we increased the cooeficient by squishing the ball into a smaller confine. BINGO. 27 foot shots and NO SNOW! All other variables remained the same.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by DavisC

The other day I had together a 4 wheel/2 motor Banebot (550s) with 4:1 ratios. We were using the wheels that came in the new KOP and we could easily launch it starting at a height of 0 and hitting the wall 30' away at 5' up.
But in front of the shooter it looked like someone tried to make orange snow from the foam basketball.
We plan on trying the grey rubber wheels or the plastic lunacy wheels.

The 2012 kit wheels basically destroy the balls. We had one prototype with those wheels and now the ball that tested it is known as the "bad ball". It barely bounces any more.

[greasemonkey]

my team intends to use a material called wacky wood which is basically a plywood with a layer of rubber in the center this makes it extremely flexible the only problem is that it is hard to find but if you live in New England than we found ours at Boulter Plywood in Somerville, Mass. they also have a website to