new balls vs. old used up balls

[Jared Russell]

Hmm...we have balls that barely resemble balls anymore, and there's no real change in accuracy or range.

However, we have found that balls that have already started to tear (from our prototypes) spit confetti, while new balls barely have any marks on them.

[Leo 1529]

boiler is right we hid the balls because the freshmen like to throw them and destroy them with tools... we have one example of a torn up ball

[Gdeaver]

Everyone is worrying about beat up balls and shooting. Even more concerning is the way old balls compress and bind more readily in the conveyance mech. Many teams may find they can move new balls around Only to find old ones jam putting their shooter out of commission. Test, test, test.

[Cody Carey]

OK, how our team is dealing with this is as follows:

We are changing the distance of the ball be varying the speed of the launching wheel, so we can have the angle that we launch the ball be adjustable (not actuated mind you; Manually adjustable) .Since all of the balls will wear at a pretty much steady rate (with a few acceptions), we can change the angle of the shooter as the competition goes on, thus changing the arc it sends the torn up balls in, and avoiding any complexed compensation programming.

That is, if it is even necessary So far we have noticed pretty much no difference between old and new balls.

[Nimmy]

is there a new kind of balls out or are you talking about the same balls we got with the kit, only brand new from the factory?

since our team is in Israel we can't order more balls and we have only the one we got with kit (and it's starting to desinegrate), we are kinda hoping the few hours at the regionals before the matches will be enough time to fix everything, either that or everyone will miss a lot (except for bots that go for corner goals =)

[Eric Scheuing]

Ours aren't even that worn down yet D:

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Nimmy

we are kinda hoping the few hours at the regionals before the matches will be enough time to fix everything

the entire first day should be the practice matches, so you'll have an entire day to work out problems! good luck!

[agndoggieboi]

ok to make this more clear...our shooter makes it so that the balls are compressed to have more energy to fire it. the new balls are a lot firmer thus making it harder to compress then the way the old (semi-shreaded) balls do. in shorter terms...the new balls make it harder to shoot like the old balls.

[Nimmy]

I think most shooters are gonna do the same, I still didn't get an answer though
when you say NEW balls are you refering to a a diffrent model? or simply NEW as in production date?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Nimmy

I think most shooters are gonna do the same, I still didn't get an answer though
when you say NEW balls are you refering to a a diffrent model? or simply NEW as in production date?

New as in it hasn't been used much if at all.

[agndoggieboi]

new balls as in the ones that weren't shot yet through our shooter.
the nice shiney ones!

[Chriszuma]

Wow, this makes me glad that we (arbitrarily) decided to use a shooter design that doesn't depend on compression to give the balls velocity. It's a good thing they didn't listen to me.....

[matt101]

Someone want to do me a favor a post a pic of torn up balls and new ones? I would like to say all of our balls are damage free, but how much is enough damage to change the course of the ball? My concern is our freshmen play with the balls day in and day out and i want to know if that's enough to alter their accuracy.

[Chuck Glick]

lucky for us we dont have to worry about the balls...

[IraJason]

Originally Posted by SirCharles982

lucky for us we dont have to worry about the balls...

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck... How are we supposed to score points we don't worry about the balls. Just because we aren't launching them in the air doesn't mean we can just forget about them...