ball "fuel" hopper sorter

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

Do you mind providing an example or two of teams that did NOT have to sort their hopper into a single feed and were successful? I'm just not quite sure if I understand your point entirely.

Part of the challenge is that most of these robots converted themselves into short-range dumpers before too long, since it was very easy for this style of robot to do that.

67 was a two ball wide shooter, but balls that came up in the middle shot just fine.

228 was not the greatest robot, but I'm very familiar with that example - a 3 inch diameter drum across the entire width shooter with a lexan hood allowed for those kind of shots.

Dumpers that had more of an active "shot" out rather than a slower puke could be argued to be this kind of shooter - 47's rebuild, 254 / 968, etc. come to mind.

100's shooter is pretty much perfect for this, but their hopper did divide into two single file channels (I'm not sure that was necessary, but that's how it was).

The key design details tend to be the use of a roller of uniform diameter rather than spaced wheels, and the use of a curved backboard made from a single piece of plastic rather than separate "rails" used on some hooded shooters.