pic: Mad Rockers FRC Team 2973 2012 Robot

[Gary Dillard]

Madison - good catch. We had 2 smaller wheels there in the original design, then we went to 1 larger one this week but haven't tried it out yet. The forked paddle was always multi-functional - push down the bridge, push in balls and lift them to the conveyor. The design thought behind adding the wheel was first that we might put it on the barrier and lift the front of the chassis up to drive over it. Then we decided it would be a good idea to have a rolling interface at the bridge. The balls were an afterthought, figuring we would just slide them rather than roll them - the small wheels were too low touch the balls, and this one is marginal. We may put the smaller ones back on in addition, closer to the ball centerline.

[Warren Boudreau]

It looks like a good design.

And no PVC.

My have times changed.

NOTE: Inside joke between Dillard and me.

[Gary Dillard]

cpvc spacers on the wheel shafts. It just feels empty without some PVC somewhere, doesn't it?

[Taylor]

That is eerily similar to our design. I hope you do well

[Gary Dillard]

So, the wheel and paddle works great if the ball is close to the center of the ramp, not so good if it's to the side - it tends to bind up. We added additional wheels to either side (total of 3) and moved the ball sensor farther inboard (which actuates the paddle), and so far that seems to resolve the problem. Actually broke the joint at the top of the paddle a few times coming up with a fix - that van door motor has tons of torque - but we just kept drilling and replacing rivets until we had a fix, then we bolted it together.