Wildstang 2012: After The Game

[BrendanB]

Thank you for making and sharing these videos they are excellent!

[Phyrxes]

Just posted this link in my team's Facebook group, thank you for making them.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by SteveGarward

Let me check on that...

Hi Steve,

Not to bug you but if you found any more info I'm still interested. Thanks.

[ajlapp]

Awesome.

Wildstang is still my favorite team...even after the curtain has been pulled back to reveal that they are not super-human, infallible engineers.

Just really close to it.

[IKE]

What camera did you use for the high speed footage of both the chassis and the shooter? We have been looking for an affordable camera that shoots around 1000 FPS, and your shooter section 3:18 of video 6 seems to be at about that rate.

[Tom Line]

Beautiful videos.

Your unique roller powered by the shooter wheels made me kick myself.

We struggled all year with the differences between new and old balls, because the new ones had much higher friction and would grab our shooter wheels, transferring more momentum and flying much further.

Some teams (bees) structured their tower to have more ball 'wrap'. Low-robots had more wrap by definition: 67 had nearly 180 degrees. We had..... 50 degrees.

Your bottom roller addressed that beautifully (and perhaps without even realizing it?) by giving the ball additional distance to speed up to the shooter's speed.

I learn more in FIRST that I do my day job.

[SteveGarward]

Originally Posted by IKE

What camera did you use for the high speed footage of both the chassis and the shooter? We have been looking for an affordable camera that shoots around 1000 FPS, and your shooter section 3:18 of video 6 seems to be at about that rate.

We used a Canon point-and-shoot that does 240 FPS. I believe is was one of the ELPH HS series.

[Wildcats1378]

Hey great video series guys. It was really informative and well done

I do have one design question though. We struggled last year with a somewhat similar roller system, but we used rubber bands. They would constantly move left and right and get all messed up. What is poly cord and how do you keep them from floating all over the place?

Thanks

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by Wildcats1378

Hey great video series guys. It was really informative and well done

I do have one design question though. We struggled last year with a somewhat similar roller system, but we used rubber bands. They would constantly move left and right and get all messed up. What is poly cord and how do you keep them from floating all over the place?

Thanks

Poly cord is sold on mcmaster by the name urethane belt. Some teams use the round belt and some use the flat belt. Basically, you buy the polycord and install by cutting the belting to length(a little short so that you get tension on your belts) and weld the two sides together with heat(we have a polycord welding set, but it's really not needed. I've heard of a flame or a soldering iron working well). Our team used the round belt for 2012. We machined pulleys out of ABS to make sure that the belt wouldn't move. Many other teams have similar or the same way of keeping it in place. I've also heard good things about flat belt from teams like 341. Apparently if you wrap your shafts in electrical tape where you want your belts to stay the belts will actually walk back to their places if they get moved.

[dellagd]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

Poly cord is sold on mcmaster by the name urethane belt. Some teams use the round belt and some use the flat belt. Basically, you buy the polycord and install by cutting the belting to length(a little short so that you get tension on your belts) and weld the two sides together with heat(we have a polycord welding set, but it's really not needed. I've heard of a flame or a soldering iron working well). Our team used the round belt for 2012. We machined pulleys out of ABS to make sure that the belt wouldn't move. Many other teams have similar or the same way of keeping it in place. I've also heard good things about flat belt from teams like 341. Apparently if you wrap your shafts in electrical tape where you want your belts to stay the belts will actually walk back to their places if they get moved.

You can also get small metal pieces that are inserted into each end of the cord to hold it in a loop

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by dellagd

You can also get small metal pieces that are inserted into each end of the cord to hold it in a loop

That's for the hollow polycord. Most teams that I know of use the solid cord, and it's honestly not that hard to weld(even without a special belt welder). We actually used a soldering iron before we got our belt welder and the welds held up the whole season. The belt welder makes the welds a bit cleaner however.