Linear Shooters - How did you do it?

[1086VEX]

we (1086) uses 4 8" stroke 3/4" or 1" bore(im not sure) pistons to launch the ball. we can launch the ball around 10' in the air and a pretty far distance as well (like over our overpass from our opponents side of the field ). it just took some time to find the right hight for the launcher and the right angle for the piston mounts. it is deffinetly very effective.
you can check us out this weekend at VCU!!

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by 1086VEX

we (1086) uses 4 8" stroke 3/4" or 1" bore(im not sure) pistons to launch the ball. we can launch the ball around 10' in the air and a pretty far distance as well (like over our overpass from our opponents side of the field ). it just took some time to find the right hight for the launcher and the right angle for the piston mounts. it is deffinetly very effective.
you can check us out this weekend at VCU!!

Yea I'll come check you guys out tomorrow. Can't figure out how any of this pneumatic launcher stuff works. It seemed like all of our prototypes of a pneumatic launch were just doomed from the start.

[gurellia53]

We're using 2 CIM motors to launch. I guess everyone else is afraid of them.
Is ANYONE else using motors to launch?

And...
here's a video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=NfoPwtG1UGI

some pics:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=64406
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/30380

[thefro526]

At the end of the season I kicked around building a trackball catapult as a possible project in school and the way I was going to do it was to have a piston retract the catapult and pull some surgical tubing tight. to get the piston to extend with the surgical tubing fast enough I was just going to leave one of the ports open which effectively makes it a spring return style piston. I figured that when you switch the direction of the piston it will almost instantly compress and shoot the ball. I'm not entirely sure it would work but if it did it would be kinda cool.