Source for Orbit Ball

[Alex Dinsmoor]

Two Wal Marts and I found none I guess that's the curse of living in such a FIRST rich area.

[waialua359]

1. Walmart may have them. 4 on Oahu, we found a total of 5 in 4 Walmart stores. 3 were about to fall apart.
2. Walmart said it was a discontinued item and they were no longer getting more of them, according to one Walmart manager who looked it up.
3. They are not durable, especially that fabric. We already plan on using duct tape to hold it together after everyone kept touching it.
4. Based on initial robot design ideas our team threw around, we need a whole lot more than 5 + 1 that we got to be able to effectively design, build and test a robot.
5. I'm worried about the availability if even the original manufacturer dont have them at the moment.

[glebe]

I have just checked out the WalMart in Ottawa, Ontario. They do not have any orbit balls. Has anyone found a source in Canada for these things? Or is it another case of having to drive to the states and do some shopping???

[pogenwurst]

Just a word to the wise for teams in the Gwinnett County, GA area: we (well, I) just cleaned out the Wal-Mart on Pleasant Hill.

Like the ones waialua359 picked up, several were broken already. That said, if they've been broken in-store the will be broken on-field, so we may as well be prepared to deal with them in that condition.

[matt91]

Originally Posted by Cory

The Orbit ball is not sourced in the KOP.

I have not personally seen the KoP yet, but I was reading through the manual and it does say:

Taken from 2009 FRC Competition Manual: PG 2 of SEC 10
10.1

KIT OF PARTS- GENERAL
Some of the exciting and important additions found in the 2009 KOP include the following items:
−
Complete control system (including Axis 206 camera, WiFi hardware, cRIO controller, two kinds of motor controllers, power distribution board, and more)
−
AndyMark, Inc. C-base chassis kit
−
AutomationDirect push button
−
BaneBots RS-545 motors
−
Orbit ball
−
2009 Rover Wheels (aka FIRST Slick wheels)
−
Sprocket spacers
−
Camera pan/tilt kit
−
Trailer hitch spacer
−
Gloves
−
Lazy Susan
−
Optical encoder

Are we talking about the same "Orbit Ball"??

[McGurky]

Has anyone tried E-mailing Blip Toys?

[glebe]

I have phoned them and am awaiting a call back, hopefully early Monday morning. Have requested information about Canadian locations..

[Joe J.]

Originally Posted by matt91

I have not personally seen the KoP yet, but I was reading through the manual and it does say:

Taken from 2009 FRC Competition Manual: PG 2 of SEC 10
10.1


Are we talking about the same "Orbit Ball"??

Yes Orbit ball is what they are called in the non FIRST world.

[Kims Robot]

We had a similar issue at our Walmart, they had 3 in stock and said it was a discontinued item so they couldnt order more. But I think we can all just be patient, as I remember the same issue with the Poof balls, everyone was panicking over them, but we were all finally able to order them online (I dont remember if it was direct from the manufacturer or through a FIRST source). I would hope its going to be the same here. Give them a couple of days, they will have something I bet.

[George Wickswat]

We just purchased 4 each at two different Walmarts. One Walmart did not have any. An assistant manager told us they are a deleted (discontinued item), but the store can still order them. Once they are ordered, if the warehouse has them they will be shipped, if not we are out of luck. She indicated there is no way to check what the warehouse or other stores have due to the deleted status. It appears the only way to hunt them down at Walmart is to check individual stores. If they have the cardboard base (packaging) on them yet they may be on a shelf. If not, they are in the loose ball bin.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

To anyone who has already broken one of these: can you find out what plastic material they are made of? I'm looking for an exact answer (such as acetal, PET, etc), not just something like "Its plastic, duh".

http://www.bliptoys.com/aboutus.htm

They should have an engineering department you can ask right?

[techkid7]

Originally Posted by Cory

The Orbit ball is not sourced in the KOP. Can anyone find it? 3 people googling has yielded no results.

It would be nice if FIRST listed a manufacturer.

There really kind of hard to find on the internet. I think first purposely did this. But Target, Walmart, Toys-R-Us, and many other toy stores sell them.

[Xianar]

one of our Mentors at 1189 found some at a wal-mart I believe, although they are supposed to be of inferior quality to the ones we received in our kits.

[T3H_K3YM45T3R]

I think you guys got ripped off that got them for $8 or $9, I found two at my walmart, I live near Kansas City Mo, and they were out of the packaging in the like "ball bin" where they have random loose balls and they were $4 a piece, they were however the only 2 they had and the walmart in the next town over had none...

[techkid7]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

To anyone who has already broken one of these: can you find out what plastic material they are made of? I'm looking for an exact answer (such as acetal, PET, etc), not just something like "Its plastic, duh".

The reason I ask, is that after finding only four of them between two local Wal-Marts, the engineering and New England frugality instincts inside of me rang out. The orbit balls don't look very hard to [re]produce!

Using calipers, the interior plastic material is about 1" wide by about 0.1" thick (cannot tell for sure due to felt thickness), and the material they are coated with seems to be identical to the material used on stretchable Book Socks. The plastic (depending on the actual material) should be easily source-able through McMaster, and book socks aren't that difficult to find.

If someone can get me an [exact] answer within the next few days, I'll immediately place an order into McMaster to make about twenty or thirty of these balls, and then I'll raid the school supply sections of every store in the area like a loaded refrigerator.

They are made of 1" polymer strips that are woven together