1346 Trackball Launcher

[dtengineering]

Yeah, air is going to be an issue... although perhaps not as huge an issue as we might think as we've got lots of room to "dial back" on the shooter power if we have to. For now, however, just blasting the thing around is pretty fun, as is contemplating the idea of boosting power a bit and making a shot over the divider and overpass and scoring from the "other" side of the field. Not a particularly useful strategy, perhaps, but certainly fun to try.

As for picking up the ball, we had great success earlier this year by just smashing it into a wall, then driving underneath it as it bounced into the air. After spending the first couple weeks bemoaning how difficult it was to work with a ball that big we finally came to the realization that there were benefits to a giant trackball (it's hard to miss!) as well as drawbacks. Now that we've got the launcher on board we're going to try that again today.

We've got a long way to go before we are ready to put this thing in a crate!

Jason