How to change angle of shooter?

[Sparks333]

KrazyCarl92 has a point that I think should be considered regarding pneumatics - one of the trickiest things about any shooting game is trying to come up with a clever way to correlate distance and target elevation with shooter elevation. I highly, highly recommend that teams take their prototypes (or their calculators) and figure out specific angles and shooting speeds that result in a wide range of potential shooting positions - namely, what angle and speed can you set up such that the angle of the shooter changes as little as possible and yet still allow for scoring over much of the field. Then, using pneumatics (or ball screws with limit switches at set locations) pick two or three angles that together will cover all your bases and leave it at that (if you use pneumatics, you might have to do multiple stages or attempt a 3-way valve solution, but much, much easier than a continuous motion solution). It's cool as all get out when you have a system that can automatically track a target in azimuth and elevation, but 9 times out of 10 the system will still be messing around when your window for shooting comes and goes.

Just food for thought.

Sparks

[Peyton Yeung]

We are looking at an arm like shooter in which we run a keyed shaft as a pivot and using sprockets rotate the whole assembly

[kingbrandon14]

We are planning to use an igus lead screw (picture above) attached to a strong motor to move the front end of the shooter up and down. We are still debating whether we should have two of these mechanisms (one on each side), or just one.

Another idea is to use pneumatics, but the disadvantage of that is there are only 2 positions: all the way up, and all the way down.

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by kingbrandon14

We are planning to use an igus lead screw (picture above) attached to a strong motor to move the front end of the shooter up and down. We are still debating whether we should have two of these mechanisms (one on each side), or just one.

Another idea is to use pneumatics, but the disadvantage of that is there are only 2 positions: all the way up, and all the way down.

We have a lead screw being used to adjust our shooter mechanism, which for the most part, is working like a charm. I cant believe the 1st banebot gearbox ratio we chose was the best one.
Initially after the shooter was built, we mounted it to a varying angle extruded aluminum frame to match the height where we designed the shooter to be. From there we determined the optimal angle range of the shooter head. Thus, the decision to design a varying angle shooter using the lead screw was determined.

[jp1247]

Originally Posted by kingbrandon14

Another idea is to use pneumatics, but the disadvantage of that is there are only 2 positions: all the way up, and all the way down.

Not entirely true. I spent last weekend testing the plausibility of pneumatic angling. By using a dual solenoid, and 1 spike controlling it, im able to get infinite variation with no lack of strength.

The solenoids two red leads go to M+ and M- of the spike, the black going into a splice on the ground side of the spike. By setting the the spike to full forward (12 volts on both pins, 0 pot. difference) the cylinder hold position due to equal pressures. I can then simply set the spike to forward or reverse to raise and lower the piston, having it default back to holding. On a 1"" bore bimba piston, i cant move the shaft at all. Flow control valves on the piston allow me to control how fast it moves up and down.

I may link a video if i get the chance on sunday...

[Herbblood]

How about just having a belt system with a motor? We're using something based off of this, and with the right motor you should be able to left your shooter around the center of gravity on a pivot point.

[JCharlton]

How about a spring to hold the shooter in the up position, and a winch mechanism to pull it down against the force of the spring? Simple pivoting joint, simple little winch one a motor. Simple is good. We're going lead screw, but it's not simple.

[capnslow]

Originally Posted by JCharlton

How about a spring to hold the shooter in the up position, and a winch mechanism to pull it down against the force of the spring? Simple pivoting joint, simple little winch one a motor. Simple is good. We're going lead screw, but it's not simple.

Wow, I really like that idea.

We're using a lead screw, I don't know where we got it but it's 8 threads per inch and we're going to drive it with a cim-u-lator. Seams crazy fast but the testing we've done shows it's not too bad.