Intake Conveyor Ideal Speed

[Crew Cox]

Hello all and thanks for reading.
For our fuel intake and shooter feed-conveyor we will likely be using 1 1/2 in. Aluminum rollers and 1 inch wide orange belting from McMaster Carr.
We will also likely be using a 775 pro with a versaplanetary to power both.
This said, does anyone have a approximate ideal spead for the belts to be moving?

[Skyehawk]

Originally Posted by Crew Cox

Hello all and thanks for reading.
For our fuel intake and shooter feed-conveyor we will likely be using 1 1/2 in. Aluminum rollers and 1 inch wide orange belting from McMaster Carr.
We will also likely be using a 775 pro with a versaplanetary to power both.
This said, does anyone have a approximate ideal spead for the belts to be moving?

Mach 10

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Skyehawk

Mach 10

Still too slow.

In seriousness, I would suggest prototyping. In this case, I'd grab a cordless drill and use it on the drive of the intake to see what is likely to work.

[wilsonmw04]

you want the linear speed of your intake to be faster that you can drive forward. One of my build members, now an alum, has a rule of thumb that it should be twice as fast as your drive. Once you get it there, you can tweak it to suit your needs.

[Crew Cox]

So what I'm getting is fast as possible without;
Breaking/slipping a belt
Burning up/ stalling a motor
Obtaining liftoff?

[Skyehawk]

It is difficult to know without seeing your design, and even then the land of theory does not translate perfectly to the real world. As far as prototyping goes 400-800rpm should pull that fuel off the floor like a hot d*mn...

[Crew Cox]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

you want the linear speed of your intake to be faster that you can drive forward. One of my build members, now an alum, has a rule of thumb that it should be twice as fast as your drive. Once you get it there, you can tweak it to suit your needs.

Thanks! Duly noted

[engunneer]

basically.

I'd aim for 1.25x robot's top speed. Also, a 775pro is likely overkill. I'd probably start with a bag motor first, and if i don't get the power i want move up to some other banebots options. though if you are using lots of 775 pros and want to maintain interchangable spares, it's not a bad plan.

[Crew Cox]

Originally Posted by engunneer

basically.

I'd aim for 1.25x robot's top speed. Also, a 775pro is likely overkill. I'd probably start with a bag motor first, and if i don't get the power i want move up to some other banebots options. though if you are using lots of 775 pros and want to maintain interchangable spares, it's not a bad plan.

This was the idea. Same reason for (hopefully) using the same ratio for both conveyors.

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by engunneer

basically.

I'd aim for 1.25x robot's top speed. Also, a 775pro is likely overkill. I'd probably start with a bag motor first, and if i don't get the power i want move up to some other banebots options. though if you are using lots of 775 pros and want to maintain interchangable spares, it's not a bad plan.

A general rule for intakes, I've found, is to give them as much power as you can spare. With modern FRC motor rules, there isn't really anything holding this back other than how much your motors are drawing (over the course of a match and when considering the draw of all your motors running simultaneously). Without looking at the final design being suggested, while I might say a 775pro sounds like overkill, it is possible that it's what is necessary.

You intake should command that the game pieces it touches enter your robot, not lightly suggest that they do.

[Crew Cox]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

You intake should command that the game pieces it touches enter your robot, not lightly suggest that they do.

This is now my favorite quote.
Thank you.

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by cadandcookies

You intake should command that the game pieces it touches enter your robot, not lightly suggest that they do.

+1 Touch it. OWN it.

Originally Posted by Crew Cox

So what I'm getting is fast as possible without;
Breaking/slipping a belt
Burning up/ stalling a motor
Obtaining liftoff?

Liftoff is fine, encouraged even.

We like our intakes going over 1000 RPM. Sometimes even faster, time waiting to intake is time you are not scoring. Touch it. OWN it.

[Munchskull]

Originally Posted by RoboChair

+1 Touch it. OWN it.


Liftoff is fine, encouraged even.

We like our intakes going over 1000 RPM. Sometimes even faster, time waiting to intake is time you are not scoring. Touch it. OWN it.

3500 RPM too fast?

[RoboChair]

Originally Posted by Munchskull

3500 RPM too fast?

You will have to test it and make sure it won't stall out, but it just depends on your surface speed requirements.

[JamesCH95]

I second the recommendation for AT LEAST 2x robot speed. The reason being that if the top of a ball is moving at 2x robot speed, the cewnter of the ball will move at 1x robot speed while the bottome of the ball touches the ground. Thus the FUEL will get get pulled into the robot significantly faster than the robot can drive.

The FUEL won't get knocked away and the robot won't jam the FUEL into its own intake with forward inertia. Perhaps most importantly in this year: if the robot interacts with a sea of game elements it won't push the bulk of FUEL away as it collects FUEL on the perimeter of that sea.

Strongly recommend the highest powered motor(s) you can stand for the application, even if you run it on an under-sized breaker (like a 775 pro on a 30A circuit). No one has ever said 'my intake can collect [game element] too quickly.' More to the point: the faster you can collect FUEL/GEARs/whatever the more time you have to score it, and there are fewer things more painful to a scout than watching a team spend time collecting game element.

My $0.02 anyway...