Amount of Ball Squeeze

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Mk.32

From what I have seen, the average is about 2inches.
But the range is about .75 to 3-4 inches.

This is a LARGE range of performance! People skimming CD to get a number for their CAD model or block of wood prototype should take a look at these numbers and realize that they need to make an adjustable rig, or multiple setups of the shooter in order to make the robot work.

The main factors we have found that affect shooter variables:

• Surface ball is compressing against. This could be a wheel, a pair of wheels, or multiple wheels / roller. Some teams experiment with making their wheel concave.
• Tread material. Different materials deform in different ways, and ultimately a shooter that works using compression will have different dynamics with different materials on each side of the ball. We like our smooth sheet steel hood, and aluminium works just as well for our setup.
• Method of loading. Many teams are loading their shooters from underneath, modeling their robots off of the popular ground loaded turreted shooters from Lunacy and Aim High. Others may be building mechanisms that load with gravity. Results WILL vary!

When in doubt, do one last prototype...

[sgreco]

Do a prototype. I'm on two teams right now (2079 and 619) and they both came to drastically different conclusions about the amount of squeeze, but both teams have functioning systems.