Dumpers?

[AlexD744]

I've seen a lot of talk about shooters. However, I'm wondering if teams are having success with dumpers because right after kickoff there were a lot of threads debating shooters vs. dumpers. I'm sorry if there's already a thread about this please post if there is.

Thank you.

Why can't a team do both?

[Matt C]

I'm currently working with two teams, one is making a shooter, the other is making a "power dumper"

[Jon Stratis]

I would imagine that there are plenty of teams pursuing a dumper that are having some great success - at least with the engineering aspect of it. The big question with a dumper has to do more with game play, however, and ensuring you can get in range and hold the trailer in place long enough to dump. I expect we'll find out how well dumpers really work in a few weeks!

[AdamHeard]

I figure the best shooter will be a pure shooter, and the best dumper will be a pure dumber. Not saying a hybrid can't be good at both, just not the best at both.

[Urban Hawk]

our team is doing both. we store the balls in a compartment on the top front half of the robot. One side of this compartment can be raised or lowered by pneumatics while the other half is on a hinge. When we raise the end up we have a door that we can open on the front of the robot to dump the balls. if we lower it then we have the balls running to a shooter in the back of the bot.

[meastman]

Our team is having success with a dumper. It is basically a hopper with a rotating base as an agitator.

[Cooley744]

here is my opinion:
shooters rely on programmers
dummpers rely on drivers
at this point, im pretty sure that whatever a team has decided to build, regardless of how well it will work, will continue with their plan. its too late to turn around and change things up that great.

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by Cooley744

here is my opinion:
shooters rely on programmers
dummpers rely on drivers
at this point, im pretty sure that whatever a team has decided to build, regardless of how well it will work, will continue with their plan. its too late to turn around and change things up that great.

I'm not saying we will change.

[MrForbes]

I've seen a few videos of dumpers that look like they work great. We're doing a shooter, and I agree that it is a challenge for the programmers

[ZakuAce]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I figure the best shooter will be a pure shooter, and the best dumper will be a pure dumber. Not saying a hybrid can't be good at both, just not the best at both.

It's like an X-wing, an A-Wing, and a Y-Wing. The A-Wing (shooter) is fast and has a powerful laser, while the Y-Wing (dumper) delivers a large payload. The X-wing (hybrid) combines both, but can't do either job as well.

Working Star Wars references into everything I can

[Stephen Kowski]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Why can't a team do both?

exactly....

[germanystudent]

our team has had a big discusion about this, and we found pro's and con's about both. dumpers are faster, but a loading system is harder to figure in. a shooter is easier to pick up balls, but it's slower to unload.

[rogerlsmith]

We had some testing time today, and our dumper, which recently turned into a power dumper, was able to get about 75% of the balls we'd picked up into the trailer in 1 dump. The balls that fell on the ground mostly ended up right in front of our robot and we were able to pick them right back up.

I've posted a few pictures on my blog, and have been updating our progress daily.

[Daniel Krastev]

THis year is our school's first year in participation in FRC, and we tried to keep it nice and simple. What we did was we built a ball depository with a 45 degree inclince toward the front of the robot. The dumper is elevated with metal bars above the chassis, and we also have a rotating bar in the front of the hopper with the proper grip to shoot the balls at a distance of maximum 3 feet approx. So in a sense, we might a hybrid launcher with an inclined dump.