pic: Front left view of ai cannon

[EricH]

I understand that the tank is metal; we used to get a similarly sized black one in the KOP. Pneumatics weren't exactly common while we had that... Something about no onboard compressor and the tank weighed about 12-13 lbs on a 130 lb robot (and the cylinder rules didn't help).

I'm not sure that parallel batteries are the best thing, especially if you charge them in parallel. (There was a discussion on this earlier this summer, IIRC.) Being a mechanical, I defer to the electrical guys on that, though.

I wasn't referring to the tether cable when I mentioned spaghetti. Matter of fact, I couldn't tell there was a tether cable on there... this may be due to about 20-30 wires going all over the place.

[rokenboker]

Originally Posted by EricH

I understand that the tank is metal; we used to get a similarly sized black one in the KOP. Pneumatics weren't exactly common while we had that... Something about no onboard compressor and the tank weighed about 12-13 lbs on a 130 lb robot (and the cylinder rules didn't help).

I'm not sure that parallel batteries are the best thing, especially if you charge them in parallel. (There was a discussion on this earlier this summer, IIRC.) Being a mechanical, I defer to the electrical guys on that, though.

I wasn't referring to the tether cable when I mentioned spaghetti. Matter of fact, I couldn't tell there was a tether cable on there... this may be due to about 20-30 wires going all over the place.

oh, sorry. the wires are actually tied down, it's just that there are so many of them in such a small area. anyway, thanks, and if you would like a schematic, i may be able to do something like that.

[gallo26]

wow! That looks pretty cool! I'd love to see a video of this in action.

It looks to me like the "Spaghetti" of wires is just long PWM cables that were bundled together. add a few bundles... But otherwise it looks like all your wires are nicely tied down.

How far does it shoot an object? What object does it shoot?

[gallo26]

Originally Posted by EricH

I'm not sure that parallel batteries are the best thing, especially if you charge them in parallel. (There was a discussion on this earlier this summer, IIRC.) Being a mechanical, I defer to the electrical guys on that, though.

I looked at it, and it doesn't look like it would be charged in parallel. Each battery has its own connector to allow for a single battery charging. The first battery just runs to the second battery, which then runs to the power switch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just what I noticed. But you are correct in saying it's not the best thing to charge them in parallel.

[rokenboker]

Originally Posted by gallo26

I looked at it, and it doesn't look like it would be charged in parallel. Each battery has its own connector to allow for a single battery charging. The first battery just runs to the second battery, which then runs to the power switch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's just what I noticed. But you are correct in saying it's not the best thing to charge them in parallel.

it can shoot T-shirts about 150' when it's at 120 PSI, but water bottles about 200'+. it's especially fun to watch at night when there is a GlowStick in the water filled bottle. it can shoot anything that can fit in the barrel without too much force.

and i do usually charge them in parallel it just takes longer, a lot longer, but i still get the same battery power when they're done charging. the reason i don't charge them seperatly is because i only have one charger and a lot of school. and to answer your last question about a video or more it has been raining, A LOT, but i do plan on putting it on youtube sometime. i'll tell you all the link and when i have posted each.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by rokenboker

and i do usually charge them in parallel it just takes longer, a lot longer, but i still get the same battery power when they're done charging. the reason i don't charge them seperatly is because i only have one charger and a lot of school.

You may find this thread interesting reading: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=77837

Admittedly, they were planning to run 6 batteries in parallel, but you should still pay attention, because quite a bit of what they said will apply to your case.

[gallo26]

Yeah your right. Its just like having a larger battery. But Of course with that you should always watch out and make sure that its fully charged. I remember hearing that if one cell of the battery is not fully charged (since it charges in cells, and they talked about this in that thread) that the output of all the other cells will decrease. And if you were to have a dead cell, charging would definitely be a problem. But i suppose those are all issues to attack when they happen (mainly the dead cell thing)

But I would love to see a video of that thing. It looks awesome. I know from our cannons we shoot t shirts, but we put a soda can in front of it and it just flew! Quite a site to see.

Please keep us updated on any revisions and any new videos you take after it stops raining

[McGurky]

That looks really good! could use a little organization, but overall its pretty awesome! as far as the batteries go, on our teams t-shirt launcher we are working on, we have one battery for the electronics and one battery for all of the motors and compressors. This way when the motor battery goes dead we can swap it out without turning off all of the lights/sounds and electronics. We are also planning to have enough battery boxes on the robot for close to 4-5 batteries, this will allow us to quickly swap the connection if the battery goes dead.

Hopefully this will help you in your further designing of this robot!!

-McGurky

[rokenboker]

Here is the link to the video you all wanted to see of the air cannon. ENJOY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIRuK9-lKII