Orbit balls breaking

[spc295]

we started with 13 balls and are now down to three undamaged balls, 7 balls with only one fracture, 2 with two fractures and 1 with 4 fractures. (dont ask)

we tried using a pnuematic punch to shoot them, but all it did was destroy them. the initial impulse kept fracturing the plastic, maybe its just to cold in our shop

[Susha]

Originally Posted by 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!

Yeahh they defineatley could be better made, but even if they have some fractures or breaks or the seams split, most of our balls still can be used. I'm betting, though, at competitions that we shall ruin the balls so throughly during game play that eventually we will run out of balls. Who knows?

[Akash Rastogi]

Well, our first one finally broke beyond repair.

Kit Orbit Ball (K.O.B) Jan. 3rd- Jan 15th 2009

May you rest is pieces.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by 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?

Hot glue works quite well when the band is intact, just failed at the connection.

Remove the stitches from the affected band.
Slide the fabric cover around until both ends are out of the cover.
Remove the old failed glue.
Add hot glue, and snap into place.
Clean up any rough edges before you replace the cover. It can snag and rip.

So far we've only had one ball out for testing, and have only had one band become disconnected.

Wetzel

[Aren_Hill]

the ball we received in the KOP is still unbroken, even after some abuse. And we've acquired plenty more from walmarts buying only the unbroken ones.

We've kept all of them but the KOP ball in a safe place so they wont get messed up before we are testing the bot, and the KOP ball exposed to hyper kids still isn't broken...

[May_Walter]

of course they have....

[abross]

We too have had a problem with breaking balls.

Isn't there a penalty for breaking the balls?

[nnfuller]

I have to ask the same question in past years they have disallowed robots which posed a threat to game pieces but this any robot that has a roller/conveyor belt based intake will be a potential hazard.

[FixRobot4Food]

We found that we can repair orbit balls using heat shrink tubing.

It seems to work well.

[flyingcrayons]

Originally Posted by Danny Diaz

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:


Overdrive - No replays for trackballs that were slightly deflated.

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

-Danny

sorry this is maaaaaaaaaddddd late, but...

yeah i remember people were discussing last year that one team got like 7-8 hurdles in one competition even though the trackball was almost completely deflated... i guess we're just gonna have to deal with the broken balls this year...

[aepstein]

I just noticed FIRST posted, in their Game Documents area, an Orbit Ball repair guide, with pointers where to get the hole punch and plastic rivets. Unfortunately the company only sells rivets with a $100 minimum order.

Has anyone invested in making a large purchase who would be willing to sell lesser quantities to other teams?

[Betty_Krocker]

No those 7 are part of the 120 moon rocks so 78 moon rocks will be put in play during telop

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by aepstein

I just noticed FIRST posted, in their Game Documents area, an Orbit Ball repair guide, with pointers where to get the hole punch and plastic rivets. Unfortunately the company only sells rivets with a $100 minimum order.

Has anyone invested in making a large purchase who would be willing to sell lesser quantities to other teams?

McMaster sells plastic blind rivets.

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by nnfuller

I have to ask the same question in past years they have disallowed robots which posed a threat to game pieces but this any robot that has a roller/conveyor belt based intake will be a potential hazard.

In all our testing of intakes, lifts, and shooting mechanisms, we broke one band on one ball.

Until we started human player practice, that is. As soon as we started throwing balls long distances, and people started to kick balls back to the human players, balls started breaking left and right. A ban on kicking was only partially successful, but I think that ban was not well followed.
For repairs, we just cut the seam, taped up the broke part, and pulled the fabric back. We didn't have any noticeable change in ball give or dynamics vs the fully original ones. Easier, cheaper, and faster than installing plastic rivets. (Paul, wanna race? )

Wetzel