pic: Team 3467 2014 Robot The Wingman

[echin]

Thank you for the compliments!

Our release mechanism/ winch has two methods of locking; a bicycle disk brake and a dog shifter. The dog shifter goes to a gear powered by a planetary gearbox, and the disk brake locks onto a disk attached to the cable spool on the winch and is actuated by a pneumatic piston. There is a picture of the winch at roughly 0:24 in our reveal video (we made an improved spool after that picture, but the concept is the same), as well as the brake mechanism at 0:34. There is a video of a slow eject shot at 1:17. The entire winch assembly fits under the support structure for the shooter, so it isn't very easy to see while it's on the robot.

[donnie99]

Thank you very much for the detailed replies from both of you! That's a truly innovative way to control the power of your release!

I would only have one other question that may just be a small detail to general game play.

Does the tall structure limit the directions the ball can be delivered from? It looks like you have only received the ball with the structure as a "backboard".
(I have watched some of your match videos and I was extremely impressed.)

See you this weekend!