DISTANT shooter BOTS

[edboy]

about the 12 m/s rule
we (1261) tried to radar our shooter with a gun, but to no success
since the balls dont have reflective surfaces, the gun couldn't pick them up
we never figured out if we were over, and wanted to observe gracious professionalism, but couldn't get a radar check, either at regionals or nationals
one person suggested that maybe FIRST figured out they couldn't clock it, at least easily, and decided to just let it go unless there was an appeal

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by edboy

about the 12 m/s rule
we (1261) tried to radar our shooter with a gun, but to no success
since the balls dont have reflective surfaces, the gun couldn't pick them up
we never figured out if we were over, and wanted to observe gracious professionalism, but couldn't get a radar check, either at regionals or nationals
one person suggested that maybe FIRST figured out they couldn't clock it, at least easily, and decided to just let it go unless there was an appeal

Enforcement of the muzzle velocity rule varied somewhat from event to event. An earlier post explains how we handled it in St. Louis.

[petek]

Originally Posted by edboy

about the 12 m/s rule
we (1261)... couldn't get a radar check, either at regionals or nationals ...

I can't speak for the events you were at, but at the three regionals I worked all you had to do was ask and the inspectors would check your shooter speed.

During build season Team 103 tried to use a sports radar gun, but like most got too much interference from the shooting mechanism, so we built our own time-of-flight speedometer to calibrate our shooter. We actually were rather worried that we were over the limit because of the range we were getting (past half-field), and needed the speed check to make sure we were legal (we were). As mentioned earlier and elsewhere, the lift generated by back-spin extends your range quite a bit! FWIW, we shot at 11.4 ~ 11.7 m/s - except for when the shooter got cranky and they just dribbled out...