Scissor Lifter?

[Chief Hedgehog]

No. Absolutely not. But I am sure we will see a few teams using them.

[Rangel]

We used a scissor lift once on 842 back in Ultimate Ascent. We used it to bring Frisbee to our shooting mechanism because we somehow forgot about gravity. I don't think you could pay us enough to make another scissor lift. Despite it being very small and simple, it was very inconsistent, never landed right, jammed regularly and overall wasted dozens of hours due to having to adjust it. Even if you can get one working quickly compared to an elevator, the time spent fixing and adjusting it is not worth it at all.

[SteveGPage]

At the start of each season, I remind the team of our two absolute rules (born from very bad experiences):

1. No mecanums (yes, even this year)
2. No scissor lifts

My FTC team came to me with a design that included a scissor lift. I asked if that was the best design the could come up with. They said it was. I said you need to try harder! The have a much better design now!

[ShinyShips]

There are only two rules when designing on our team:

1. No turntables
2. No scissorlifts

I haven't had any experience with scissorlifts, but our mentors must have a really good reason for not wanting to ever have one.

[IndySam]

The Digital Goats have two rules.

#1 No casters.
#2 No scissor lifts.

[orangemoore]

I have one rule that applies to FTC more than FRC and it is as follows:

Unless you have to raise an object more than 20ft in the air. A scissor lift is not the answer.

(Bascially unless we play a game like 2011 (bowled over) again you shouldn't need to use a scissor lift.)

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

I have one rule that applies to FTC more than FRC and it is as follows:

Unless you have to raise an object more than 20ft in the air. A scissor lift is not the answer.

(Bascially unless we play a game like 2010 (bowled over) again you shouldn't need to use a scissor lift.)

Bowled Over was 2011-12. I'll agree that it was probably the only time I've ever seen a scissor lift that was actually effective. Seeing teams shoot those crate 20-30 feet up with elastic powered scissor lifts was both really cool and really scary.

If you want to be successful this year at competitions, a scissor lift is almost certainly not the way to go. Build a nice elevator or something. You only actually need one stage this year.

[asid61]

Out of curiostity, what's if it's single stage? I.E. Two bars that cross with a joint in the middle.
Assume that it's milled accurately and not made on a drill press.

[Laaba 80]

We used a scissor lift in 2013 to score the colored discs while our robot was on the pyramid. We needed a compact mechanism to lift a few frisbees a few feet, and I thought it worked great for us.

Obviously this is very different than lifting totes;however, I think they can work well in specific applications, and to automatically rule them out is a mistake.

[yara92]

Originally Posted by IndySam

The Digital Goats have two rules.

#1 No casters.
#2 No scissor lifts.

I understand why casters and agree.
but whyscisser lifts

[waialua359]

Nothing wrong with scissor lifts!

[asid61]

Originally Posted by waialua359

Nothing wrong with scissor lifts!

Why and how? This seems to be a very contradictory veiwpoint here, and I'd like to hear your thoughts. What is your experience?

[waialua359]

Originally Posted by asid61

Why and how? This seems to be a very contradictory veiwpoint here, and I'd like to hear your thoughts. What is your experience?

We built one in 2003 stack attack and it stacked bins very nicely. The scissors lift only had to go 2 bins high max.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

We built one in our rookie year (1996), we never even thought to replicate that experience since. I use a scissor type man lift here at work on a regular basis. In order for it to work well, a rigid precision frame and bearings in the joints are essential. The problem with most is the non-precision with which they are built. This leads to instability while moving and therefore intermittent loads that exceed the ability of the drive to overcome.
We have a do not use list too...
No casters/shopping cart wheels for obvious reasons.
No omni wheels on ramps.
Anything else that does not fit the game.

[sviridovt]

Let me just repeat every one here: NO SCISSOR LIFTS unless you want to know what hell feels like. The only time one should even consider a scissor lift is when you have to lift for small distances, with only one layer. Anything more will be waaaaay unstable.