For grip, you could also consider silicone rubber tubing, as was used by multiple teams for their intakes. I’m unsure if McMaster will ship to Turkiye, but other vendors will likely sell an equivalent.
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We already have some black silicone tubing from McMaster. But I believe the one we have is not large enough for a 50mm (~2") roller, even with the compressed air trick. We had to use 50mm rollers to be able to deliver the cubes to our claw with just 2 rollers. We couldn’t figure out the geometry with smaller diameters.
I used the same material with a different team back in 2020, and it worked great. I believe it would work great here too. So, thank you for your suggestion. 
We ordered the Cat’s Tongue tape to one of our member’s relative who will travel here in near future. Our only reasoning was to experiment with a new material.
(Shopping from McMaster with a Turkish card is not fun btw.
)
8 Likes
Moonwalk
To be honest, the past few days have been frustrating. It felt like walking forward, and going backwards. So I amAndyMark leaving this beauty for the background, hoping to communicate despite the language barrier.
What we dealt with:
- Rewiring “Centrifuge”
- Mounting the original gears for the new bot’s intake deployment
- rereassembling swerve modules (yes, again
) - Testing “Centrifuge”
Rewiring
Even 9 months ago, we had bad feelings about the electrical aspects of this bot. We couldn’t offer ourselves enough space because of our design choices. In the end, I don’t regret what we did, “Centrifuge” felt more unique than any other bot I got my hands on. But even this day, we deal with the consequences.
After some bitter work, it is better than what we had before, way better than the last time’s mess. I amAndyMark certainly sure that it could still be better, but it is safe to consider it as an upgrade. Here is a photo right after mounting the new Talon SRXs. (We don’t have enough BLDCbrushless direct current motor motors for two bots, so we replaced two Falcons with 775pro + versa planetary combo on “Centrifuge”.)
“braker”
Some tweaks will be made, when we feel motivated.
Intake
We received the laser cut gears for the intake. Not even sure why they are 10DP since they are going to be used with a custom rack, so they could have been metric. 
the usage:
Sliding motion got better and better really fast as the steel gears ate up the lexan rack. At this point, I amAndyMark afraid of it getting better till there are no teeth left on lexan. 
Swerve
Right before we were about to start testing, we noticed some issues with our MK4 modules.
- Pushing the billet wheels upwards were raising the azimuth pulleys ~1.5mm (~0,06").
- Even lightly tightening the round spacer bolts was locking the wheels in certain wheel directions.
Reasons for these problems felt like our modules being 5 competitions and many driver practices old, and poor assembly. After disassembly, one minor, and one major problem caught our eyes.
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Most of the bolts were covered in dried loctite and hard to tighten all the way. Felt normal because we reassembled these things several times since they were bought. We made them wait in brake fluid overnight, heated them up and wire brushed them. (We won’t find these blots in Türkiye.
)
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The bruh moment has occurred when we noticed that these bearings were mounted upside down.
Everything was smooth after these fixes.
Testing
After some work on the code, the compressor shorted. We tried to solve this issue by inspecting the external wires since they were damaged and had glue on them, but couldn’t find anything. Compressor’s condition has been really bad for a long time. I suspected about an internal melting, but I consider myself as a caveman when it comes to electronics. Eager to hear your opinions, if you have one! We replaced it with our backup one, and it works well.
After some tweaks, we started flipping once again!
We are in peace for now. Until next time, thank you for joining, and hope you have a nice day.
19 Likes
Do you powder coat or spray paint? The paint job looks good.
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Thank you!
All parts are anodized with very few exceptions.
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You anodize the aluminum extrusion? That’s pretty uncommon. Is that done in house?
Hello There
“General Kenobi”
It’s been long since our last update. Sorry for the inconvenience, we are back.
Updates:
- Event status
- Electronics
- Bumpers
- Control software
Event Status
We finally have an event to compete in.
Istanbul Off-season will take place in late October. Most of the details are not published yet.
Electronics
It was a bit easier than “Centrifuge” since we had some space.
New bot’s electronics are almost complete. We took advantage of this since it was sufficient for some testing.
Bumpers
We made the bumpers minus the fabrics and numbers. Fittings are a bit loose and one of the mounting points is really hard to reach. (almost impossible💀) I kinda hate bumper work.
Control
We did some tests on the shooting. Range and accuracy seems to be workable.
It was indeed the first time. 
We already broke the CF tube while testing. We’ll probably change the diameter and grade since it seems to be too brittle for our application.
There seems to be nothing much left until we start driver practices. Until next time, thank you for joining, and hope you have a nice day.
22 Likes
How does this mechanism work?
And as for the roller intake, where do you buy the lexan tube for it?
Hi! I’llLimelight, an integrated vision coprocessor try my best to explain.
We have a 50mm (~2") OD aluminum tube with machined end caps which are welded.
The claw is live, and the CF stick is dead axle. CF holding printed piece has bearings inside, so it is not effected by the claw’s movement.
Just a random local seller in Türkiye.
1 Like
Prettyyyyyyyy 
Touch It, Own It
Hi! Here is the jam of the day.
Updates:
- Event reschedule
- Driver practice
- Intake rollers
- Intake & claw control
Event
Off-season event is rescheduled to mid November. Not a pleasing update for us since all our technical mentors are university students, and new dates will probably collide with midterms.
Driver Practice
We did some practice runs to warm up drivers and check for possible issues on “Centrifuge”.
Everything seems okay, and students are improving at a fast pace.
Intake Rollers
Thanks to @Torrance, we ordered the grip tape. For a cheaper alternative, we previously wrapped the top roller with a yoga band. It worked just fine. Unfortunately, after wrapping the bottom roller and seeing how it looked way superior, we had to go with the golden standard for the top roller too. 
Grip is nice, we just need to see how it holds up with time. The only (very minor) downside is it requires some finger strength for a clean roll.
Intake & Claw Control
We started scoring with some presets. We still can make scoring much faster, but not our first priority for now.
Intake deployement seems to be fast enough. Linear activation is sufficient for last second deployements.
Intaking while sprinting looks fine.
bruh
Testing autos and dealing with the broken CF tube are the next steps I guess. Until next time, thank you for joining, and hope you have a nice day.
49 Likes
Sweet! Looks great! The slide and all the tuning seems great already.
If you have problems with the tape sticking to your roller, you use additional adhesive like thick cyanoacrylate glue to hold down the
As always, ensuring roller is clean, could even sure an adhesion promoter (wipes like this work).
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Thanks a lot!
Will keep it in mind for sure.
Never seen something like that before, made me curious. We just used isopropyl alcohol before sticking. I must say that both sides of the tape have much better quality than I expected. Its adhesive is very strong and it doesn’t go away with some stick and rip action. @R.C and his team know what to work with. 
Thank you for your suggestions once again, means a lot. 
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BALLISTA!
Long time, no see! Here is the jam!
Updates:
- Photoshoot
- CF tube
- Intake motor & deployment
- Autonomous
Photo
This is probably the official picture of “Ballista”.
The result is not that bad considering what we had in hand, and how experienced we are.
CF Tube
Old one is out, new one looks 
. Focus is off .
Intake
We snapped some of the encoder cables on the Neo 550 due to aggressive bending during intake deployment. After some unsuccessful troubleshooting we had to change the motor.
We decided to eliminate every contributor on the whole setup. Now, the top roller’s movement looks much better, and the motor cables bend much less.
Autonomous
We have some autos ready, but they need some final tuning before the event.
4 piece + level auto with a tank.
Driver practice and more auto modes are the next steps I guess. Until next time, thank you for joining, and hope you have a nice day.
35 Likes
How did you guys cut the teeth on your intake? I’m guessing a cncn. Also do you power both sides of the intake to deploy it?
We used CNC router, but the used endmill was larger than we needed. So, we had to handfile each tooth with a triangular needle file. It was not fun, and it was not working smoothly before some usage.
Yes, this post explains how we deploy it in detail.
3 Likes
What gear ratio is on your shooter? Looks like 1:2? I ask because our off-season robot has similar construction, but it can only shoot cubes about half as far as your video shows. Any chance you’d share your CAD so we could compare?
Hi!
Yes, it is 12:24 HTD 5M with NEOs.
CAD is a bit of a mess right now, and we never discussed about it being public. Will talk to the crew for sure. Here is the normal view of the shooter for now. (One plate is hidden for easier view.)
I’llLimelight, an integrated vision coprocessor try to guess the possible reasons of the range difference using these pictures for better comparison. Some may won’t make sense, I amAndyMark sorry in advance.
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Your minimum wheel surface to wheel surface distance is 6.125", ours is 7.630". We may be accelerating easier with lighter compression. In return, deflated cubes are a no no for us while shooting.
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I may be seeing some light rubbing between the cube and your lexan plates in your testing video. This is probably the side effect of greater compression with beefier plates. Our 3" wheels are dead axle for less material around the shaft.
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We have one wheel per shaft. Less mass to accelerate is helping maybe.
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Our inner wheel is 3" for easier startup, and outer one is 5" for greater exit velocity. (This may be bro science, idk if it contributes to anything.) Instead of same diameter with a speed difference, they are 1:1. The main reason is that we needed a wider contact area to index cubes from the intake.
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We have more room for the cube, and it doesn’t touch the front wheel when we fully intake. We may have a greater surface contact duration while shooting. Our range drops so significantly if we don’t feed the cube all the way, we miss the high node at auto.
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Most importantly, we are shooting on the move in that clip. Chassis speed helps a lot for the range.
I may have missed some factors, but these are all that comes to my mind. I amAndyMark open for further discussion as I amAndyMark also interested about this topic and different opinions. Also interested in other teams’ experiences with this kind of a design.
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I would like to start by saying I love the robot concept, it’s a super cool twist on a pretty common offense project this year. I was curious about what lead you to pick that style shooter and subsequent intake. It wasn’t a super popular form of shooter this year, so what lead you to that versus a more 1561 or 1923 style shooter. Additionally where did the decision for an independent intake come from.
Thanks
Cam
Thank you for your kind words! The fact that it’s coming from you guys makes it even better!
Our main goal was to try some new mechanisms and educate new members on the way. We did consider many concepts. Because we didn’t have swerve modules+ BLDCbrushless direct current motor motors for a second bot, and were feeling a bit rusty on the WCD side, tank was our only option. Something like 1561 was out, because we felt like opposite side intaking and scoring was a must with tank drive. On the other hand, we did consider something like 1923. We did a final weigh in between 3 concepts. These concepts were named after their inspirations, but already had different features in our mind compared to their original versions.
This was the final document we had. (The original file was in Turkish, and I had to use Yandex Translate. That is why it looks strange. ! Some translations are very wrong, we don’t want to upset anybody. !)
We went with what 1778 had for their DCMP, and changed everything as we liked. For the sake of trying something new, we went with a 254 inspired intake.
We felt like it was the best option for it to be as wide as possible and be maneuverable in tight spots. Expected activation speed was a reason for us too.
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