Team 67's incredible shooter

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I think 67's curve really seems to help their FCS ability and I wouldn't make an effort to eliminate it.

Chris, you are correct. We attempted to eliminate it prior to attending any district competitions, but once we figured out where it shot and how well we actually use the curve to our advantage. We pretty much shoot straight for the 2pt goal, and let it arc back to the middle of the 3pt goal.

Your tip is interesting, we can see the track of the disc heading out and atleast on our shooter they want to track out early. We think part of the consistency of this shooter, is that we do not try and constrain the disc at all.

As as the accuracy going way at the end of MSC, we think either the other wheels are wearing down now (losing grip) or the doors they opened up to allow teams not in the elims to clear out of the pits, may have been creating a tiny amount of draft that may have influence the long shots. Who knows?

We will be replacing the shooter wheels at the start of Champs, I'll keep my fingers crossed that it continues to shoot well.

Adam

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

Chris, you are correct. We attempted to eliminate it prior to attending any district competitions, but once we figured out where it shot and how well we actually use the curve to our advantage. We pretty much shoot straight for the 2pt goal, and let it arc back to the middle of the 3pt goal.

Your tip is interesting, we can see the track of the disc heading out and atleast on our shooter they want to track out early. We think part of the consistency of this shooter, is that we do not try and constrain the disc at all.

As as the accuracy going way at the end of MSC, we think either the other wheels are wearing down now (losing grip) or the doors they opened up to allow teams not in the elims to clear out of the pits, may have been creating a tiny amount of draft that may have influence the long shots. Who knows?

We will be replacing the shooter wheels at the start of Champs, I'll keep my fingers crossed that it continues to shoot well.

Adam

We have verified on our practice field that drafts have a large effect on our shots. Even our up close ones.

[JamesTerm]

I was talking to the team this morning about the importance of art hence (STEAM vs. STEM), and immediately thought about team 67's 2012 robot...

I know this is slightly off-topic but since compliments are going towards team 67. I just wanted to add this one in as well... here it is around a little more than a year later and that 2012 robot still sticks in my mind. There is something about it that was a beautiful work of art and so unique. A belayed kudos goes out to you guys... I just wonder how much of artistic influence went into the design.

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by JamesTerm

I was talking to the team this morning about the importance of art hence (STEAM vs. STEM), and immediately thought about team 67's 2012 robot...

I know this is slightly off-topic but since compliments are going towards team 67. I just wanted to add this one in as well... here it is around a little more than a year later and that 2012 robot still sticks in my mind. There is something about it that was a beautiful work of art and so unique. A belayed kudos goes out to you guys... I just wonder how much of artistic influence went into the design.

James,

Thanks for the comments. I can't say the robot was designed specifically with art in mind. The most important deisgn criteria is always performance in any of the parts / systems we design. But we do try to abide by the saying -- if it doesn't look good (right), it probably isn't good (right).

So much of the time we continue to iterate our designs until they are as simple as possible, while maintaining functionality.

Any of the other things that we did to help increase the appearance of the machine (vinly on the arms, blacked out cover, *bumpers, etc...) were done after the fact to help with the aesthetics.

*I believe we had 3 sets of bumpers that elevated in appearance throughout the season. Ahh...the things you can do when the robot works well..

[Alex Cormier]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

Any of the other things that we did to help increase the appearance of the machine (vinly on the arms, blacked out cover, *bumpers, etc...) were done after the fact to help with the aesthetics.

*I believe we had 3 sets of bumpers that elevated in appearance throughout the season. Ahh...the things you can do when the robot works well..

That is very true and not seen on a lot of robots. Excellent looking bumpers and graphics is a need. It shows the teams brand and shows off the robot's sponsors.

[audietron]

Originally Posted by JamesTerm

The 3997 screaming chickens have a circular shooter that I believe could have been long range, because man that thing had some serious power at close range, low to ground feed drive, steep angle... when it scored the 3 point... it went in about 45 degrees with no hint of even coming close to leveling out... it slammed into the goal. I personally like this.

Our shooter was very similar to 3997, We did try to see how far we could shoot after Champs and when we ramped it up the wheel was going so fast it just never caught the Frisbee and went less distance then at 40%. It went only 5 feet maybe. Going slower (80%, 90%) didn't really help us very much either.This is why most full court Shooters either use different wheels other than pneumatic or have to wheels one to speed the Frisbee up into the second.
Here is a look at our shooter we never took video of trying to FCS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjGaCqWNH9Q

[mman1506]

Originally Posted by audietron

Our shooter was very similar to 3997, We did try to see how far we could shoot after Champs and when we ramped it up the wheel was going so fast it just never caught the Frisbee and went less distance then at 40%. It went only 5 feet maybe. Going slower (80%, 90%) didn't really help us very much either.This is why most full court Shooters either use different wheels other than pneumatic or have to wheels one to speed the Frisbee up into the second.
Here is a look at our shooter we never took video of trying to FCS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjGaCqWNH9Q

1310 usead a andymark pneumatic wheel up too champs then switched to a Mcmaster carr pneumatic like 610.

[coalhot]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

*I believe we had 3 sets of bumpers that elevated in appearance throughout the season.

We had the same thing this year. Sleek looking bumpers change the whole feel and look of the robot. Here are a few pics:

Before

After

I should mention that the original bumpers were also illegal, someone came up with the crazy idea to use denim for the blue side

[Jim Zondag]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

But we do try to abide by the saying -- if it doesn't look good (right), it probably isn't good (right).[/size]

"Aesthetics matter: attractive things work better." - Don Norman - Author
Not only do attractive things work better, but our experience has shown that students and mentors alike will work harder on things that look really cool. If you spend a little thought, time, and effort on aesthetics, it will pay back many times over in additional effort by your team.

[Ian Curtis]

"If it looks good it will fly good (is a myth that is sometimes true)." -John McMasters

In addition what Jim said, in order to look good you've really got to sweat the details. I have found that when you sweat the details, you end up with a much better product. Think about the difference between haphazard holes and precise bolt pattern.

[Jay O'Donnell]

I know this is an old thread but I have a couple more questions about team 67's shooter if they don't mind. What angles do you shoot at for autonomous and full court shooting? what do you do to get Frisbees from the bucket into the shooter? Do you happen to have any CAD models or drawings of your shooter?
Thanks in advance if anyone from 67 can help! -Jay

[MichaelBick]

I have a few pictures from CMP that will hopefully help you a bit. I didn't get very good documentation of 67's shooter, but it looks like they have an L bracket attached to a chain run that acts as a conveyor and pushes the front of the Frisbee:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...&usp=sha ring

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...&usp=sha ring

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

I have a few pictures from CMP that will hopefully help you a bit. I didn't get very good documentation of 67's shooter, but it looks like they have an L bracket attached to a chain run that acts as a conveyor and pushes the front of the Frisbee:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...&usp=sha ring

https://drive.google.com/folderview?...&usp=sha ring

Yup it's a short run of chain with an L bracket on it.

You can see one end of the chain in this picture. http://i.imgur.com/UBS1NPG.jpg

[Adam Freeman]

Originally Posted by Jay Money 1058

I know this is an old thread but I have a couple more questions about team 67's shooter if they don't mind. What angles do you shoot at for autonomous and full court shooting? what do you do to get Frisbees from the bucket into the shooter? Do you happen to have any CAD models or drawings of your shooter?
Thanks in advance if anyone from 67 can help! -Jay

Jay,

The angle varied at the wheels worn in during the competition. We had to continuously adjust the shot positions throughout the competition to keep up with the changing wheels.

Our nominal pyramid and autonomous shot was around 20-21 degrees. Any time we lost our position of the potentiometer, we would use a digital inclinometer to adjust the autonomous shot back to 20 degrees, then make fine adjustments from there.

For full-court shots, the angle was a little bit lower. This usually changed a lot as the wheels wore in. Theoretically it was setup around 10-12 degrees. Not exactly sure what angle we shot at most of the time. Knowing the exact angle was a little less critical since our operator manually adjusted it during each match to keep the shots hitting in the middle of the goal.

As Akash and Michael pointed out, we used a piece of 1" AL angle riveted to a connecting link (7321K7 @ McMaster) with a platform on it. The chain ran under the hopper and grabbed the frisbee on the inside front lip and pulled it into the shooter wheels. I designed it to release and dip under just as the frisbee was contacting the wheels. We used bike chain and a VEXpro planetary that was geared to 100:1 (if I remember correctly) with a AM9015 motor.

Our drawings and CAD models are so crude, it would be pretty embarassing to show them to anyone. But, I'll see what I can find.

-Adam

[Jay O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

Jay,

The angle varied at the wheels worn in during the competition. We had to continuously adjust the shot positions throughout the competition to keep up with the changing wheels.

Our nominal pyramid and autonomous shot was around 20-21 degrees. Any time we lost our position of the potentiometer, we would use a digital inclinometer to adjust the autonomous shot back to 20 degrees, then make fine adjustments from there.

For full-court shots, the angle was a little bit lower. This usually changed a lot as the wheels wore in. Theoretically it was setup around 10-12 degrees. Not exactly sure what angle we shot at most of the time. Knowing the exact angle was a little less critical since our operator manually adjusted it during each match to keep the shots hitting in the middle of the goal.

As Akash and Michael pointed out, we used a piece of 1" AL angle riveted to a connecting link (7321K7 @ McMaster) with a platform on it. The chain ran under the hopper and grabbed the frisbee on the inside front lip and pulled it into the shooter wheels. I designed it to release and dip under just as the frisbee was contacting the wheels. We used bike chain and a VEXpro planetary that was geared to 100:1 (if I remember correctly) with a AM9015 motor.

Our drawings and CAD models are so crude, it would be pretty embarassing to show them to anyone. But, I'll see what I can find.

-Adam

Thanks for the quick and thorough response!
-Jay