Our current hooded shooter prototype has a fixed angle at which the ball exits. Is it possible to change this angle somehow in the middle of a match and how can we go about doing it. I am particularly looking for a way to change the arc of the ball’s path. So far, we have just been spinning the wheels at a lower speed.
1 Like
There are some decently complex designs that ive seen regarding having the hood basically as a curved worm drive but my team decided against it because of its inherent complexity.
1 Like
A couple of solutions include a continuously adjustable hood, usually a rack and pinion based mechanism, for example 254 in 2016, or another solution would be a two position hooded shooter controlled by pneumatics, for example 254 in 2014
For some more context, my team is pretty new to building shooters and our custom machining capabilities are limited at the current moment.
In that case you’re better off with a fixed hood and do whatever subtle changes you need to do via wheel velocity.
5 Likes
Definitely stick with a fixed shooter and dial it in really well. Less moving mechanisms means less complexity. If you don’t have experience, focus on simple and optimizating it to the best of your ability.
Which angle is usually the best to stick with? For this year’s game, our team is deciding between 45 and 60 degrees.
How far away do you want to shoot from? @sgeckler made a nice trajectory simulator in Google sheets that you can use to test different options
Assuming the shooter is assembled as a unit, meaning the wheel, motors, and hood are all connected rather than separated, is it feasible to consider rotating the whole hood on an axle?
1 Like
it would be rather heavy, so that could be a challenge. For non experienced teams fixed hood to the top score is the way to go in my opinion.
Look at 179’s robot in 2016, it is a relatively simple system that a team of any skill could execute.
A better example would be 254 from 2012.
The 2014 design is more complicated and more sensitive to manufacturing tolerances. The only reason they did it that way was because of packaging (the ball was so big it didn’t leave room for a slotted hood).
From a manufacturing standpoint that might be easier. But you need to evaluate how rotating the whole shooter will affect your feeding mechanism.
If you decide to go that route, you could actuate it with a DART actuator (possibly with a NEO?). I would expect that to keep everything nice and rigid and give you fine control. Never used them on my team, but a lot of teams use them.
my Team is not changing the angle it will be a fixed angle, but because the outer port is naturally big we have a small bit of room for distance.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.