842 Kicker On Bot

[fordchrist675]

Originally Posted by falconmaster

video looks great John, cant wait till we get all 4 on!

As if you weren't already awesome enough. XD how far does it kick exactly?

[Valkyries_698]

good stuff 842, I can't wait to see your robot at comp. Are you guys coming to Duel in the Desert?

[kE7JLM]

Originally Posted by Valkyries_698

good stuff 842, I can't wait to see your robot at comp. Are you guys coming to Duel in the Desert?

Yeah, we'll be there with both our bots. A large portion of our team will be missing due to other school stuff...

[falconmaster]

Originally Posted by fordchrist675

As if you weren't already awesome enough. XD how far does it kick exactly?

18 - 20 ft

[fordchrist675]

That is a good solid distance.

[Triple B]

looks really good
keep up the work
mike d

[Johnny]

Are those Parker rams that i see? I don't think those are allowed.

[MrForbes]

Parker cylinders were not allowed for a couple years, but last year and this year the rules for cylinders are pretty much wide open...there is a limit on max bore and stroke, but any configuration or manufacturer is allowed, must be unmodified COTS.

[JBotAlan]

First, let me say I'm very impressed. You guys are moving forward pretty quickly, and look like you will have a solid robot by ship date.

However, looking at yours and someone else's (don't remember now...) shooters, I have to wonder...how successful will you be when right against the goal? ...when a few feet away?

I haven't seen everyone's design yet, but so far I haven't seen one that will do close range. Have you got something cooking for this?

[Jones571]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

First, let me say I'm very impressed. You guys are moving forward pretty quickly, and look like you will have a solid robot by ship date.

However, looking at yours and someone else's (don't remember now...) shooters, I have to wonder...how successful will you be when right against the goal? ...when a few feet away?

I haven't seen everyone's design yet, but so far I haven't seen one that will do close range. Have you got something cooking for this?

We spin the wheels that posses the ball in reverse works well

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by JBotAlan

However, looking at yours and someone else's (don't remember now...) shooters, I have to wonder...how successful will you be when right against the goal? ...when a few feet away

Couldn't agree more. Not trying to single 842 out as all of videos I've seen have teams kicking over atleast one hump, but who will be scoring all those balls? I think the accuracy rate for kickers in the middle and far zone will be surprisingly very low. I think the best kickers will be those that can adjust distance on the fly to score from close in but also clear balls up to the scoring zone.

I fear many teams will suffer from the 'Kyle Boller affect'. Kyle Boller can throw 60 yards from his knees and was drafted in the first round and basically never became a good QB. I'm afraid some teams (in designing/building and scouting) will fall in love with the kickers that can kick the ball the length of the field but still may not be sucessful.

[dude__hi]

We can modify how far the ball is kicked. The maximum range covered is what is shown in the videos. The shortest kick is about 2ft, iirc.

[MrForbes]

Do you do that by controlling how much air it gets? timing the opening/closing of the solenoid valves?

[dude__hi]

Originally Posted by squirrel

Do you do that by controlling how much air it gets? timing the opening/closing of the solenoid valves?

Yes, in the game from 2 years ago when we used a similar pneumatic shooter design to launch the large ball over the scaffold we would sometimes get really bad shots and the ball would shoot short. This time we're having the robot do that intentionally in order to vary the distance it kicks.

In short, the amount of time the valve is open varies the amount of strength we use to make contact with the ball.

[Ed Law]

Team 842,

That is an awesome kicker design. I now understand how one can use springs (surgical tubes) to assist to get the piston come out faster. I also learned about pre-charging (pressurizing) and how you use the gate latch to hold it.

Can you tell me in your set up, if the maximum distance by doing everything you are doing is 20 feet, what is the distance if you do not pressurized the kicking cylinder and just activate the solenoid valve? Did you also try to pressurize the kicking cylinder but take out the elastic cords. We are very behind right now and will not have time to try out all these things. Any help from any team will be appreciated.