Rubber Basketballs

[HumblePie]

Our team is looking at buying more basketballs for demo purposes. Foam basketballs seem to be available online (no longer at AndyMark) but we all know how easily damaged they are, and they're not exactly cheap, either. Does anyone in the CD community have experience with rubber basketballs for demo events? A size 4 seems to be just a little smaller at a 24.5" circumference. What we don't know is: does the extra bounce cause an issue, and do they perform comparably with a wheeled shooter? I imagine the air pressure could be varied, but I'm wondering if this learning curve has already been climbed. Thanks for any input.

[Kevin Selavko]

If you deflated them to the compression of the foam balls I think it would be fine in a wheel shooter.

[Samwaldo]

Wow, why haven't we thought of rubber balls for demo purposes!!! the foam balls get destroyed after some of our events, when we are running 3-4 balls through the robot nonstop for 5-7hrs (with short cool down breaks).

Although we haven't used rubber balls, i would assume, they will have a lot more "bounce". That means that the faster and harder the robot shoots it, the more likely it will bounce off the backboard and miss. Usually when at a demo, a robot is close to the hoop, so it will not bounce off the backboard as much.

The way to "fix" this bouncing problem will probably to just change the speed (if you can from your controls) and/or to adjust your angle (if you also can from your controls)

(If you cant adjust these, maybe its a good offseason project.)

[Alan Anderson]

One of the biggest potential differences is the mass of a rubber ball vs a foam one. A heavier ball will shoot slower than a lighter one.

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

One of the biggest potential differences is the mass of a rubber ball vs a foam one. A heavier ball will shoot slower than a lighter one.

Helium. Also, keep in mind any rubber ball, basketball or otherwise, won't have as much give as a rubber ball does when being compressed.

[techedguy]

We did shoot a volleyball through ours a few times. Not as hard as basketballs by nature and typically lighter. Best wishes - let us know what works out for you.

[HumblePie]

Well, based on the responses, I guess we're the guinea pigs, eh? They should arrive Wednesday, I'll let everyone know what we find out.