Rhino Track Shooter

[steelerborn]

Due to the unavailability of the rhino tracks and their high cost, we could never build a prototype of a rhino track shooter. Just wondering if there were any teams out there who tried that setup that would be willing to share their experiences. Seems like you could build up a lot of speed with them.

[bkahl]

I'm sure there's a team out there who has tried it, but sharing Prototypes is a foreign concept for some teams.

[Joseph Smith]

I believe you could build a belt shooter for a much lower cost than a rhino drive module costs. Those are designed to carry a 140 pound machine over field obstacles. All this would have to do is throw a light foam ball.

[steelerborn]

Don't doubt that you could, just was wondering if anyone out there had given it a try with that track.

[Collin Stiers]

I am confused as to the concept of a "track shooter" is this like a spinning wheel shooter but with tank treads?

could someone please explain

[steelerborn]

Something kind of like this: http://delta-engineering.be/wp-conte...3/CSG_BASE.png

Giving it a lot of speed building up.

[cbale2000]

Back in 2006 our shooter used a section of rubber covered wire mesh (commonly used in pool chairs) wrapped into a belt as a combination feed belt and the bottom half of a shooter (we had a second fly wheel on top of it for the other half of the shooter). Worked pretty good, though it was hard to keep it in its track.

[CJ_Elliott]

Team 1711 did something similar in 2014.

Here ya go

[steelerborn]

Not quite what I was looking for but that is okay. You would need a different holder with a conveyor or pneumatic pusher into the belts so that they could get up to speed. Allowing a more powerful shot than in the video.

[evoluti1]

If you're not bearing the load of an entire robot, you could try just using off-the-shelf conveyor belting, that is without the synchronous belt backing that Rhino Tracks have. We tried some last year on an intake prototype and it wasn't *too* hard to implement (though definitely would be more work than a wheeled shooter for any team). It would be a challenge to keep everything running smoothly at high speeds, but then again the Rhino treads might have the same issues.

[pwnageNick]

We also had a similar shooter to this concept in 2012, just not with the rhino track/belt material:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=104961

It does help get to a higher exit velocity and keeps that more consistent without relying on ball density.

Note: in the above video we were running double belts. by the end of the season we had switched to having two rigid poles on the top instead offl the belt, so it kind of became a shrouded shooter but with a belt.