17-02-2004 01:35

matchpoint04

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

What do you guys think of our robot?

17-02-2004 01:46

Madison

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

It's nice to see an old school ball hopper show up on CD once more Good job!

17-02-2004 02:43

Matt Adams

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

It looks like it could handle about 14....

17-02-2004 03:31

Lord Nerdlinger

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

looks simple and effective, i'm sure that'd be a good alliance partner for a lot of teams

17-02-2004 06:24

ZACH P.

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

It's got big balls. lol Our team has followed quite a similar path, we'll see how it turns out for us. Does your expand?

17-02-2004 06:42

matt111

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

we have similar design. we can get 7-9 last time i saw. how are the balls raised up into the hopper?

17-02-2004 07:45

Collin Fultz

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

it looks good guys! i've been wondering who is actually planning picking up the balls. it will make an amazing partner. good work

17-02-2004 08:02

pras870

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Finally, a robot to gather and disturibute balls! I thought the concept had been abandoned, but you brought hope back!

17-02-2004 09:42

Tom Bottiglieri

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

did you modify the fisher price motor's gear box at all? That looks like 2 inch PVC for the roller. We tried out the same thing, but the motor ran way to slow to pick up anything quickly.

17-02-2004 11:29

MisterX

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Kudos to you guys the first ball collector of the year on CD. Anyways that is a nice robot. Just curious do you just line up with the ball corral and put it in reverse with the same mechanism that collected the balls? or is there some other output that I am not seeing

17-02-2004 11:35

Adam Y.

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

It would appear that the balls would be able to be backed out the way they came. Nice job on your robot.
I know we ran a two to one gear ratio and our balls move slowly. We might try making a replacement one after the robot is done.

17-02-2004 12:38

Paul H

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Do they all come out when put in reverse? We found that the balls will get jammed with only two rollers.

17-02-2004 13:40

matchpoint04

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

The 3" PVC is hooked directly to the Fisher Price Motor. There is a ramp behind it gives the balls support as they go up. It is a bit slower than we would like but seems to work just fine.

To get the balls out the motor is reversed and they all come out. We have had very few problems jamming balls because the opening is just wide enough for two balls to go through. More testing will be conducted though.

Thanks for all the encouragement!

17-02-2004 13:50

Max Lobovsky

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

You can actually force balls in from the bottom when you already have 10 or so in there? That's kind of surprising.

17-02-2004 14:55

Heretic121

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

thats amazing =D as long as u canpick them up and shoot them back down that is a great job right there. i know a lot of people who are ignoring the small ball part of the game will love to be alligned w/ you

17-02-2004 15:27

Sachiel7

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

This is a great example of a solid working design. Great great job guys!!!
How is your drive working out? Have you had any issues w/ the 2 casters up front?
Just curious, looks great!

17-02-2004 17:06

Wetzel

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Hows that DeWalt chopsaw working for you? We've had to take apart the switch on ours a few times since we got it in 2001.

Also, any plans to shield that controller? It looks rather exposed, and they will break when they take a good hit.

Otherwise, I thought that there wouldn't be enough room to pickup enough balls to be worth the effort of a hopper. Perhaps I was wrong...

Wetzel

17-02-2004 20:11

matt111

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

**First Ball Hopper on CD this year**

17-02-2004 23:21

matchpoint04

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Haven't had any problems but then again we've only had it for a couple months.

Yeah that is not the final electronics board and that whole area will be encased.

17-02-2004 23:27

matchpoint04

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Well it turns like you wouldn't believe and it seems to work great!

18-02-2004 01:07

Sachiel7

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Good!
I'm glad someone has had good sucess with casters.
Make sure you note your designs for future years. It will come in handy.

18-02-2004 12:46

geo

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

lol, this robot looks same as our, except ours can pick up more balls something like 10-12. Great work though.

18-02-2004 12:53

Tom Bottiglieri

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

good job to all ball collectors/catchers. ALOT of people seem to be forgetting about this portion of the game, and how many points can be scored with this! I think we (ball collectors) are gonna rock this year!

19-02-2004 18:54

Joe J.

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Ziff 2.0 loves your robot!!!

22-02-2004 22:09

IceNerdAK

Re: pic: Team 568's 2004 Robot

Team 568 Update:

Since we posted this pic, we've completely redone the ball hopper to reduce the balls sticking on the fishing line, redone the electronics board, added pneumatics (think: funnel), and we are currently working on a mechanism to grab the 2X ball (our first one used a window motor, which didnt have enough torque; the grabbing mechanism still works beautifully). Even with the 2X ball on top of the bot, we can easily hold 12 balls. We haven't quite fixed all of the kinks with balls jamming while unloading, but we still haven't used that rotary actuator... I dont think it will be an issue in competition. The only major hurdle left is the center platform :-(. I don't know that we'll be going there, but we're going to leave our options open. So, for all of you that will be there, see you in San Diego (ahh... dreams of sunshine [which we sorely lack here in Anchorage]). Adios.