pic: Homemade Orbit Ball! (White Paper Coming Soon)

[artdutra04]

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[Woody1458]

WOW! Thank you so much for proving that it can be done. I cannot wait for the white paper/tutorial vid as all the local stores in my area have been cleaned out. I am sure that my team will be making these. Is the spring constant approximately equal between the real and reproduced? A good test would be resting a heavy book on one, measuring then depression then doing the same to the other.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Woody1458

A good test would be resting a heavy book on one, measuring then depression then doing the same to the other.

Unfortunately this is also a good way to break them.

[Woody1458]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

Unfortunately this is also a good way to break them.

OK maybe a medium weight book Start at Dr Suess, and move up to JK Rowling.

[EricVicenti]

I also reccomend dropping the real one and fake one at the same time while videotaping. On the tape you can count the bounces and see the height, comparing the consistancy.

What are the actual balls made of?

[sayso_411]

Originally Posted by EricVicenti

I also reccomend dropping the real one and fake one at the same time while videotaping. On the tape you can count the bounces and see the height, comparing the consistancy.

What are the actual balls made of?

lol...i dont think teams have many to work with


edit: what about the right side?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by sayso_411

lol...i dont think teams have many to work with


edit: what about the right side?

Coming soon: FRC Game Pieces.

[sayso_411]

Originally Posted by EricH

Coming soon: FRC Game Pieces.

Oh wow totally missed that!

Thanks

[Andrew Bates]

I know it's not up there yet but does anyone in the "know" know how much FIRST will be selling the game pieces for?

[daltore]

FIRST is selling the game pieces for $10 a piece. You have to fill out this application process to get them.

How much does the replication ball weigh in comparison to the actual one? I see this difference being very crucial in calculations. Our team managed to find 17 balls (the afternoon of Kick-off and Sunday), so I'll try to get a chance to find the range of deviation and the distribution of deviation of the ball's weight to see if it will affect results.

If Blip has discontinued this product, how would they make money off of the design anymore? Simply by filing suits against students of a non-profit? I think it's pretty obvious they would lose, and so they'd have to foot the cost of a lawyer and actually lose money, so I'm pretty sure we'll be okay.

[FoleyEngineer]

Team910 - The Foley Freeze tried our hand at making a ball today too. It came out pretty nice! We measured the strips in the KOP ball at 1 1/8 wide BTW, and created a duplicate by cutting strips and riviting them together (two at each overlapping joint). Here's a picture of the new ball (clear plastic) next to the KOP one, and then it wrapped in shiny duct tape - for fun!

[GarrettF2395]

If all else fails, it seems you have a potential future in the toy manufacturing busyness.

[AdamHeard]

Awesome.

I like the compression test Idea, maybe do 10 test with varied orientations of the ball with each, and compare the average?

Also, did you happen to measure the internal plastic on a stock ball?

[Koko Ed]

This reminds me of a story one of the mentors on my team told me about the floppies from '97 which was the only case of FIRST using a game piece that was not readily available in stores so one rather enterprising team made the floppies for other teams for a fee. There's a fundraising idea for you!

[Woody1458]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

the first case of FIRST using a game piece that was not readily available in stores

fixed

gosh darn Orbit Balls