Cameraman is about to take one for the team

We were testing a prototype shooter and the cameraman was standing off to the side, but not far enough. He was taking pictures in rapid fire mode. This was right before the ball hit him in the head. Fortunately, the camera was not damaged.

Sorry to hear that, but THAT’S AN AWESOME PICTURE!!! :smiley:

Someone needs to open up photoshop and add some flames to the ball.

I hope he was wearing safety glasses!

I think some members of a certain team may disagree with your sentiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moM5DadQSXM :wink:

Joking aside, sweet shot (pun intended).

Funny! (But no, seriously, everyone should be wearing safety glasses when apparatuses and various thingamadoohickeys are running. Catastrophic failure is always – always – a possibility!)

here you go





Poof balls may not fit in your eye, but loose bolts, washers, splinters, metal shavings, and screws from a hastily-assembled prototype shooter sure can! Better to treat everything like it’s about to explode and be wrong than the other way round.

this is another case of needing to look for the “Plane of Destruction™”

Whenever something is moving, it generates a Plane of Destruction™. Safety is knowing where the plane is and not being in it. ::safety:: Safety Goggles are for when you unintentionally end up in the Plane.

There should be more goggles in your picture. Also, before launching anything, all other people in the room should know about it.

All jokes about the size of poof balls relative to human eyes, I think this does show one of the disadvantages of having a 2 wheel thrower. It’s very difficult to get 2 motors spinning at exactly the same speed, so if one’s spinning faster than the other, the ball will fly to one side or the other. Look into a 1 wheel thrower.

That being said, wicked sweet picture!

It isn’t difficult to get a two wheel shooter accurate, they have a long history in 2006 and 2009 of being on the top of some very reliable robots! Part of it is making sure the two wheels are fully supported and level.

Sick picture!

The best ones from 2006 and 2009 were 2 wheels mounted vertically, one on top of the other. This way any difference in speed between the two wheels will result in back or forward spin, not slicing from one side to another. Having 2 wheels horizontally takes away any potential of backspin, which is what you want in this game, as back spin will help the ball bounce “down” into the basket off the backboard as opposed to the rebound bouncing too far. The most consistent (more important that “accuracy”) throwers are single wheeled throwers or double wheeled mounted vertically.

looks like you need to work on your aiming a bit more :stuck_out_tongue:

I use to not wear safety glasses like you, but then I took a poof ball to the knee.