22-03-2009 23:13

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

To be honest I really thought that the ability to shoot down was an obvious design feature that should've been on all shooters from the get-go. Sean from 1771 and I had talked about it early in the season and it clearly paid off for them.

I still want to see 1726 and 1771 side by side one day. Scary thought. Oh wait, that's what next to them? 188????

1323 has been designing a new turret and hood since 1771's performance.

22-03-2009 23:20

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

I guess you guys just are ahead of the game, it took us a while to figure it out...you sure were right! Other robots at AZ with upward pointing shooters did not score nearly as well as we did.

We have gobs more pictures on our gallery

http://photos.project1726.org/thumbnails.php?album=36

22-03-2009 23:21

Akash Rastogi

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

That machine is really beautiful. Awesome engineering once again from you guys. Last year's robot was so sick I didn't think you could top it.

Also, do you think that a springloaded hood would be any more beneficial than a regular hood? Just wondering if you tried that out.

22-03-2009 23:23

Caio

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

This robot was amazing to watch in the regional. I had doubts about turrets and shooters starting off this year, but watching this robot left me cheering it on (through my TV)

22-03-2009 23:24

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Thank you! We were pleasantly surprised to receive the Motorola Quality award at the Arizona regional....

22-03-2009 23:24

dtengineering

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Based on the video I've seen, the camera tracking and long shots make for a much more beautiful, impressive machine than the more efficient solution of turreted dumping. Mind you, when you're holding a championship trophy, the robot's going to look pretty beautiful regardless of what had to be done to it to get you there!

I would really, really, like to see this game played on a playing field with about twice as much floor area so that teams with elegant designs get a chance to show off what they can do other than just "push and shove" and dump in close.

Mind you, I say that for all the games... when we increased the teams on the floor back in '05, we really should have increased the size of the floor as well.

Good luck in Atlanta!

Jason

22-03-2009 23:30

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

The camera tracking and making long shots looks great when it works, but we tried to get the camera adjusted in LA and the lighting was just a bit too challenging, so we went with manual control, at short range, with the downward pointing shooter. We didn't quite get the hang of it in LA and lost in the semis, but in Phoenix we started out with it shooting down and it worked great, we lost only one match. Mind you, there was a bit more competition in LA, with several "power dumpers" able to score big globs of balls in no time flat...none of the AZ teams had robots quite like 973/399/1388/207!

If you can use the camera reliably, that would be really nice to see

22-03-2009 23:38

R.C.

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Squirrel, your bot this year rocks and has a great color scheme to it. How many balls can you hold max. Also thanks for the tin snips.

22-03-2009 23:41

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Thanks! the kids did a great job. It seems to hold about 15 or 16 balls...and you're welcome!

It's amazing what you can do with some plywood, krylon paint, and plumbing supplies if you try

22-03-2009 23:45

R.C.

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Are their any bristtles or pneumatic tubing coming out of the center of the helix to help the balls up btw?

22-03-2009 23:53

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

It has some of that grippy shelf liner on it, attached to form "flaps" about an inch wide.

22-03-2009 23:54

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Another picture, here we're replacing it, it lasts one regional

22-03-2009 23:54

R.C.

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

Very interesting, any idea where to get, we were thinking of adding an agitator to our hopper to help fix jams and making our hopper bigger.

23-03-2009 00:06

GUI

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

We got ours at the local WalMart for about four dollars per roll. Rather than compressing the balls to push them up the helix, the central roller slaps them really fast (1200 rpm), meaning there is very little load on the motor driving it.

23-03-2009 00:20

MrForbes

Re: pic: 1726 in practice

We had a jamming hopper in 2006, which is one reason why we have a helix this year...a single ball path helps to prevent jamming.

If your robot design allows it, see if you can make a narrow path that the balls follow. I didn't get any pictures of your robot after you added the metal sheeting on it, but the one with the netting makes it look like the ball path is not much wider than one ball, but it doesn't really have anything at the top to keep the balls all in one line, they can bunch up next to each other.