pic: B.o.B. - Stronghold - 2

[Chris Hapstack]

loading photo ...

[DaveL]

Nice design!
Can you comment on your intake roller?

Does it center the ball?

Dave

[Rivet Man]

Hi Chris Hapstack,

Really nice design you've got going on here.

I took the liberty of recording how many rivets were on the robot (or at least visible from the photo!).

Identifiable in Photo: 162 Rivets
Likely Total (Drivetrain bottom not included): 516 Rivets

It goes without saying that this is a design that I can personally stand behind.

Best Regards,
RM

[Wayne TenBrink]

Looks good. Can't wait to see it at West Michigan next week!

Congratulations on your win at Lakeview.

[Chak]

what material is that spiral on your intake? Can you tell me more about it?

[Chris Hapstack]

Wayne - Thanks! I'm excited to see y'all there too!

As for the intake, I'm pretty happy with how it centers the ball. It's by no means perfect, but after a few weeks of prototyping various ideas, this yielded the best result. The main issues we were trying to alleviate with the helix was pulling the ball towards the center when it was trapped in front of the bumper. It's definitely faster when we drive straight into a ball, but if the ball does start off-center, the helix will center it in a second or two. One of the reasons we decided to go wide was a larger intake area, which definitely paid off at Lakeview.

As for the helix itself, we just cut a spiral into a 6" DIA circular sheet of plastic, then stretched it out into the helix shape. It's attached to the roller tube with some small custom right-angle brackets made from sheet metal.

As for the rivets, let's just say that we're addicted...