Help feeding from stack of 4 discs

[Jeffy]

We saw both kinds of "nesting" that you described.

We only found the type of nesting where the upper frisbee tries to go out the output slot in front of the lower frisbee to be a problem.

If the frisbees nested so that the upper frisbee was between the "plunger" and the frisbee in the "chamber" we noticed that when the plunger was fired the upper frisbee would slide at an angle upwards and the lower frisbee would slide into the shooter just fine.

As per how we solved the other kind of nesting:

Originally Posted by JChang

We added a lip on the exit side, so only the bottom most Frisbee lay flat, the rest sits on the lip. When the bottom one exits, the diagonal length allow the second Frisbee to fall through, getting it into position.

Edit: After thinking how it worked on our robot, I realized that the animation is somewhat inaccurate. The back piece should be angled a little towards the exit so that it realistically works.

We use something very similar that I can advocate for.
What we have is that the bottom frisbee is shifted about 1/2" off center from the other frisbees. Then, the other frisbees lay on top of it at an angle.
When you push one frisbee out of the "chamber" another slides down into the chamber with the other frisbees still resting at an angle to the frisbee in the chamber. The key here is that this "chamber" only be small enough for only one frisbee to fit in at a time, but large enough so that a frisbee will slide into it from a position "staged" above it when no frisbee is in the chamber.

Also, vibration of the entire plate from the shooter wheel, or from the bot driving is more than enough for any loose frisbees to fall into place.

Sorry I don't have any good pictures of the device and the kids took the prototype apart. If you have questions, please ask.
Best of luck.

[Gary Bonner]

We had the same problem; even a minimum-sized exit slot allows movement of the second Frisbee in the stack, which could then tilt into and partially block the exit. In addition, the bottom Frisbee would occasionally prematurely slide out toward the wheel (we have a 90 degree shooter) from vibration or impact. This would allow the second disc to tilt to the back and block the firing mechanism. We solved both problems with a lightly sprung retainer in the middle of the exit slot that swings up and out of the way when pushed by the bottom Frisbee as it exits. The retainer both holds the bottom disc in the hopper and keeps the second disc nested parallel to, and centered on, the bottom one, preventing jams. We have had no jams since installing the retainer. Here's a clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hVpz...e_gdata_player

[Coach Norm]

We had a similar problem to the stacking, nesting in both the forward and back positions when frisbees were fired.

We actually did not have the problem in an early prototype. As we moved through testing, we moved to a more rigid method and it was a major problem.

Our solution, the opening the frisbee slides out of is smaller than the height of the frisbee. The top part of our hopper system is mounted on a hinge at the side opposite the frisbee exit position. The upper part of the hopper moves up as the bottom frisbee is pushed out. The hopper slides back down into position as the bottom frisbee moves out. As is mentioned above, the hopper does not allow the frisbees to stack but in one way without overlap on any edge. We are using a Jason's Deli pickle bucket of the 6 gallon variety. It has a slightly smaller draft on the side than a regular 5 gallon variety bucket. We are using the very top portion of the bucket down to just below the second rib (about 3" worth of the bucket).

Hope this helps and good luck.

Norman