Dropping Ramp Issues

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Bill_Hancoc

If you had a spring could you maybe put it somesort of mechanical lock on the ramp so that i cannon deploy until you disengage it. Maybe power it with a servo or something small. This way if you are concerned that it will deply accidentally there is always a good mechanical lock preventing it then you can still keep you current piston mount.

Thirded. Use springs that are strong enough to knock your ramp over and change the function of your piston to disengage a latch. We're doing something similar, though we're using our ramp lifting motors to disengage the retaining system. The retaining system is still to be defined, but at worst we'll be using highly calibrated fishing line to tie the ramps together and just break it with our ramp motors.

[Mike Martus]

Originally Posted by techknow 1685

Hello,
I just registered to cheif delphi, so i am new at using this site.
I hope i am doing this right.
Anyway, does anybody know what kind of what kind of motors can we use for the robot?
Can we use a motor from power drill?

Please read ALL the 2007 rules very carefully. There are limitations and restrictions on many things including motors and wire used.

To answer your question NO you may not use any motor that was not either provided in the kit of parts or is on a approved additional motor (quanity) list. All of this is very clear in the 2007 manual. FIRST did a very good job this year with this document.

[bsbllpss]

springs are stored energy otherwise illegal
newbs

[Mister_Juggles]

You could always have the pin/lock idea (where the piston pulls away something blocking the ramp from falling) and just spin your bot in the home zone. As long as your bot can spin in a somewhat small circle, then you might be able to pull it off.