pic: 2014 Team 48 Robot - xtremachen17

[Travis Hoffman]

loading photo ...

[eddie12390]

Looks good, looking forward to being able to see it in person in California

[mathking]

That is a really nice design Travis. I am glad you are going to Crossroads so I will get to see it in person.

[Rosiebotboss]

Looking pretty nice....

[Racer26]

So if I'm understanding correctly:

The cocking mechanism is wound up and released by spinning the motor in the same direction (until it hits the cut-off teeth, where release happens)?

Neat approach. I assume there'd have to be some position feedback on where the launcher is currently cocked to.

Also like the pneumatic claw rotater. How are you getting it to stop in the various positions mid-travel? Some sort of center-off valve? I'm sure you remember 1075's 2007 arm, where we had to do crazy things with multiple valves valving the exhaust because of pneumatics rules at the time.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Racer26

So if I'm understanding correctly:

The cocking mechanism is wound up and released by spinning the motor in the same direction (until it hits the cut-off teeth, where release happens)?

Neat approach. I assume there'd have to be some position feedback on where the launcher is currently cocked to.

You are correct. The idea originated from a similar mechanism inside a Nerf Stampede ECS fully automatic dart blaster.

Just endpoint sensing. We retract full speed for a pre-set time then retract slowly until the retract prox is made. Re-$@#$@#$@#$@# [<<--- HAHAHAHAHA] time is in the sub 1.5 second range, I think. I'd personally prefer angle position awareness of the pinion at all times, but it seems to work really well as-is.

Also like the pneumatic claw rotater. How are you getting it to stop in the various positions mid-travel? Some sort of center-off valve? I'm sure you remember 1075's 2007 arm, where we had to do crazy things with multiple valves valving the exhaust because of pneumatics rules at the time.

Center-exhaust valve. When the arm is locked, we kill both tilt cylinder solenoid outputs, connecting both sides of the tilt cylinder to exhaust. Until we get that valve in (today, I believe), we've been using single solenoid valves tied to each air line going to the tilt cylinder to facilitate the same function. Can't wait to tear that hot mess out of the practice bot.

[D_Price]

Can't wait to see you guys again in Pittsburgh. Very nice robot as always!

[Travis Hoffman]

Now with intentionally horribly-edited video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eegVXysXSjA (probably blocked on mobile and PC's in most industrialized nations) - all of the practice field footage in this vid was from our Monday night practice session.

Here's an uncut video of an extended battery-drainer run from the end of Monday's practice - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjrBeGeOCcU

[Travis Hoffman]

Added some new claw features today.

http://youtu.be/VKqFY-zxGjE