Orbit balls breaking

[Ian Curtis]

We cracked open our Kit today and threw the ball around at our strategy meeting. We were throwing it all walls, compressing it between our hands, the whole nine yards, and there was no apparent structural failure.

[GregW11]

Interesting...
While I haven't been able to use the balls (apart from throwing it up and down slightly while we were strategizing/installing Labview again) if they're most likely going to break it would be nice to know if there will be a large supply in reserve or what will happen if they get broken.

[Mr_I]

We bought 5 at WalMart today (and now have 2 of each color combination ... do you think that the reason that FIRST picked the color combos for Lunacy is that that's all the manufacturer makes? ). Of the 5, three were broken. We got the good ones for $10 apiece, and the manager gave us a $1 "discount" for the broken ones (thanks, buddy). Fortunately, two of the broken ones appear to be fixable (the break is at the joint), but the other is really broken.
We are speculating that we can carefully swap out a fixed segment from a broken one, thus making a good one out of two broken ones. Grrrh.

[yoshibrock]

After I got on last night and saw all the posts in this thread, I made sure we had a "only touch under supervision" rule on our only orbit ball.
We're hoping to find some more at local retailers, but we think it's too late now; other teams have probably already bought them out.

[McGurky]

Does anyone know of how they are bonded together? some of you have said that it was a glued joint, but why wouldn't they sonic weld it?

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by Laaba 80

Also, it wouldnt hurt to practice with some broken balls, thats why the teammate bought them. There is a very high chance that you will be playing with broken balls at a competition, and you want to be able to accommodate for that.

Yup, I think THAT is the historically accurate answer for all of this - when we bought 4 of them at Wal-Mart 3 of 4 were broken, and I broke the 4th one an hour later while giving it a slight squeeze to see how it deforms. Unless the ball is just absolutely mangled beyond recognition I don't see the competition staff being able to replace them when only one or two bands are broken (imagine a robot squashing a group of 'em as it slides into the wall). You're just going to have to figure out how to deal with these things "mostly broken."

-Danny

[AlexD744]

I managed to get a broken one for 4 dollars at Wal Mart because it was the last one available without a tag. The people just guessed 4 and we were just fine with that. However, I haven't seen any other signs of easy breakage. (I'm not sure if any of this is proper English, sorry)

[cbudrecki]

So what happens when FIRST doesn't have enough balls to get through the 'Ship?

42 Regionals + Championship (count as 5 regionals)=47 comptitions

136 balls needed to run a match, factor in broken ball replacements, estimated 350 balls per comp.

47*350= 16,450 balls!

or a high, probably more realistic estimate of 400 balls per comp = 18,800 balls!


not to mention off-seasons!!!!!

[Swerting]

Maybe teams can get bonus points if we make the balls for first?
I really doubt though that FIRST would plan a huge event around these balls if they had even an inkling that the balls would be going out of production.
Or they could've heard about the end of production for them and bought out the company's stock
Either way, I still dont think that FIRST would plan this w/out having the balls first.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by tb222

not to mention off-seasons!!!!!

I feel the most sorry for the off-season competitions unless a HUGE source is found before the end of the regular season.
The Trackballs were hard enough to part the ~250 dollars for a whole set from Logo-Loc for when we needed them in the off-season for an event, (because FIRST did NOT supply them with the field we got), but at least they were available, & although they were expensive, we had a guaranteed place to get them.

My advice to anyone deciding to run an off-season this year for the first time, is to keep an eye out for as availability of the balls throughout this year before you decide to host one.

[Greg Marra]

Someone care to post an Orbit Ball teardown and show us one with the skin off?

[andrew348]

When we bought our Orbit Balls, one had the plastic exposed, and the others had at least one broke seam. So when we got back, we resewed the fabric connections to help preserve the balls for practice. I would recommend this.

My question is will FIRST repair them is they just have the fabric falling off. I doubt they will have field reset/repair sewing ... so will they use duct tape?

[BigWhiteYeti]

I assume broken balls still count during the matches, but say a super cell breaks and cannot be handled, costing the alliance the match? Would they replay the match? What if just a moon rock broke? I am sure they will have replacements at the arena, but you can't replace pieces in-game.

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by BigWhiteYeti

I assume broken balls still count during the matches, but say a super cell breaks and cannot be handled, costing the alliance the match? Would they replay the match? What if just a moon rock broke? I am sure they will have replacements at the arena, but you can't replace pieces in-game.

My guess is that you'd first have to define what it means to be "broke," which I have yet to see - this is an important question to have answered. Secondly, FIRST is not going to replay matches because of broken items on the field, unless it was clearly "broken" before the match started (and even then it's sketchy as to what they'd do).

Look at a couple previous year's games:

Raising the Bar - No replays of matches because of slightly deflated balls.
Aim High - No replays of matches because of slightly deformed balls.
Rack 'n Roll - No replays for under-deflated or completely deflated tubes.
Overdrive - No replays for trackballs that were slightly deflated.

The short answer - be able to deal with broken orbit balls.

-Danny

[Greg Needel]

This is one of the broken balls mid "fix" with industrial tape.