pic: Winning Alliance AZ Regional 2014 , 842, 2486, 2403

[MrForbes]

There is a whole lot of AWESOME in this picture!

[dodar]

Is that little piece of surgical tubing the launcher for 2486? If it is, wow they got a good shot out of it. lol

[kuraikou]

No that is a clever way of keeping the ball in place that 4183 also used, I don't know if they adopted it from us or if it was separately thought of but it works either way.

When a ball rolls into the robot through the intake the ball is rotating because of the roller so the ball pulls the tubing down and stretches to accommodate the ball. When the ball is on the other side however the tubing blocks the ball from leaving the intake, keeping it in the correct firing position and preventing the ball from rolling out.

It sounds really weird but it works really well.

[Coach Norm]

Originally Posted by kuraikou

No that is a clever way of keeping the ball in place that 4183 also used, I don't know if they adopted it from us or if it was separately thought of but it works either way.

When a ball rolls into the robot through the intake the ball is rotating because of the roller so the ball pulls the tubing down and stretches to accommodate the ball. When the ball is on the other side however the tubing blocks the ball from leaving the intake, keeping it in the correct firing position and preventing the ball from rolling out.

It sounds really weird but it works really well.

Is this a change to your robot from Hub City? I do not completely understand. Do you have video of this in action?

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by Coach Norm

Is this a change to your robot from Hub City? I do not completely understand. Do you have video of this in action?

Yes. We added it after balls rolled forward after the catapult at Hub City. I don't have any video now, but I'll see if I can get any at our next meeting.


Edit: Shelbers2486 posted their reasoning below. Ours was basically identical.

[kuraikou]

yes this is a change we made on our practice robot first and then made at AZ first thing thursday. as for videos I have none but I will try to find one.

[Shelbers2486]

We added the tubing a few weeks ago when we realized the the ball would roll off the shooter into the pick up system if we were just driving around. It would take a few valuable seconds to get the ball back into the shooter every time we were ready to fire, so we grabbed a piece of tubing that was just sitting around and it worked perfectly!

[CLandrum3081]

Much congratulations. *tips safety glasses I've been wearing as a hat for the past 24 hours*