Orbit balls breaking

[pfreivald]

I managed to find seven, broken or not, at local Walmarts. Some were fully reparable because it was just an undone 'snap'-type connection. Others are broken in the middle of bands (or elsewhere not at the joints).

We are planning to build our robot with the expectations that balls will both figuratively 'break' (that is, come unsnapped) and actually break during competition, and that these in general will not be repaired.

Patrick

[petek]

Originally Posted by andrew348

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?

Duct tape?! FRC professionals insist on Official FIRST Gaffer's Tape for all repairs.

[Darkcrosbone]

Originally Posted by petek

Duct tape?! FRC professionals insist on Official FIRST Gaffer's Tape for all repairs.

hahahaha duck tape is like the god of all tape

[ShotgunNinja]

So, our two teams (since we're mentoring another team this year) only got one game ball.

Any easy solution?

[csshih]

raid an opposing teams' ball closet.

try buying some @ wallmart.

[jsasaki]

Originally Posted by Lodyev

I heard blip isn't selling them anymore.
Wal mart isn't getting any more.
No clue where FIRST is getting tens of thousands of them

i'd wish Blip would manufacture more orbit balls but I know they arn't... oh well sigh the good thing is that FIRST is selling them online I hope FIRST bought a billion of them for each regional.

[Leon Canidae]

i think what really happened is that FIRST baught out Blip and took control of the storeage supplies. then once the competitions are over they will sell off the toy as a fundraiser for furture competions. FISRT is becoming a fortune 50 company and will eventually rule the economy. Mwhahahaha. all because of Orbit balls.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by jsasaki

i'd wish Blip would manufacture more orbit balls but I know they arn't... oh well sigh the good thing is that FIRST is selling them online I hope FIRST bought a billion of them for each regional.

There will be an extremely limited supply through FIRST, and I don't expect them to have enough to sell to every team. If you want them, you will need to be quick.

Wetzel

[codykoppelman]

Originally Posted by Greg Marra

I handled a ball at Kickoff that had broken similarly to how you describe. The plastic joint had broken, and the acute angle formed by it managed to rip through the fabric covering, exposing the pointy plastic ex-joint.

A very similar thing happened to my team's ball. I cant understand how somthing sold as a toy, even before this year's challenge was released, could be so fragile. That must be one of the reasons they stopped production of them

[ali-of-oz-388]

I'm scared that our moon balls are going to break, as well. We've been practicing shooting constantly and I noticed some severe bends in some of the balls, and considering the shortage of them, if they break, they're going to be extremely hard to find. We recently sent 7 of them to a team in London, England that couldn't seem to find any of them. So London, take care of those moon cells!!!!

[384 huband44]

we bought only one of the orbit balls and it broke before in an hour of having it

[mn1101]

Yeah.
Our team ball already broke so I've been assigned to fix it.. each time.
Any ideas better than tape?
Has anyone tried hot glue?

[Jim E]

Maybe a splint, (think broken leg) would work.

[Ryan O]

In answer to other part of question at beginning, I believe I saw a Q & A saying that any balls with two or more broken legs noticed by field reset would be considered "broken" and replaced, but that teams should design systems to accomdate normal changes in field pieces, ect

[waialua359]

I simply dont believe that each regional event has enough balls for competition, considering that a LOT will break.
I think teams will end up working with a majority of broken balls for the most part at competitions.
Designs need to be able to compensate for it, especial ball shooters.
We've been prototyping all kinds of designs and wheel speeds and our orbit balls are trashed after 1 hour of testing.
We are really frustrated by the LACK of durability of these things!