Just wondering if any teams have tried to use a high power fan system defensively in this competition.
Yes we (1729) did 
If you want the specs, PM me.
we considered using one but decided not to based on the fact that the balls have large holes in them.
edit: i just realized the mike from my team is the starter of this topic
We did and they worked great, if done right. We were able to get between a robot and its trailer, turn on the fans and push a team halfway down the field by its trailer. Theres alot more to building the fans than just slapping a motor on a blade. My team did alot of research
heres a video of them running in the pit
It depends on what you mean by “defense”. We had two FP driven propellers on our bot that provided 6-8 lb.s of thrust. At one point, when our ball intake broke, our driver pushed 1319 (flash) all the way down the field sideways, to the human player, who then scored two super cells.
If, on the other hand, you mean using an air stream to deflect orbit balls, then no. We did some experimentation using a 3 hp leaf blower. While you could push the orbit balls around on the ground easily enough, we were not able to change the trajectory of an incoming orbit ball enough to make much difference. We decided that it wasn’t worth pursuing.
I know the robodawgs were trying, but i saw one of their team members walking around with it (wired to a switch and a battery in his backpack), it made a huge amount of thrust, but i really never saw it work.
A bunch have tried. my favorite is 180, basically you went where they wanted you to go. On another note with our basket dumper we cant dump on them while this fan is running (from directly behind). You can throw balls in to the trailer though
First let me say congrats on the win and building a great robot.
Second I feel I have to mention that I believe you were able to push us that way simply because our driver did not know how to maneuver out of it. Maneuvering out of it would have been possible and he was a rookie driver. The fans had nothing to do with it. Had you tried that again you would not have been as successfull.
and Third if you guys keep posting your different strategies on here people our gonna know what to expect. I would be cool to see a team from the South even if you are on the “wrong side of the border” win it all but that will be more difficult if you don’t keep some stratgy up your sleeve. Good luck
469 Las Guerillas is using 2 fans for thrust. I’m not sure how well its working i didn’t see any huge differences, but it was pretty cool either way, cause they were very little of there weight, so they had a heavy complex shooter and storage aswell.
Yeah, but they did it and scored 2 super cells on you…
I never said that they didn’t in fact I agreed that they did. However this thread was about the effects that fans had and I just pointed out that fans had nothing to do with them accomplishing that task.
Just curious, how would you get out of a situation like that? Hard to see how a pin from 1771 (yeah I watched all their matches) is escapable when they are pushing full force with fans + accelerating. I wanna know how to get out of one of their pins just incase we ever have to face these guys.
Akash the secret is that there is no way to escape. When we have our fans going and we’re pushing someone, we are accelerating close to %50 faster than any other robots. If you can’t accelerate faster than us, which is near impossible to do when being pushed sideways, you are going where ever we want, which just so happened to be in front of our human player. In short a different driver would not have made any difference.
Well since there was plenty of field open while they were pushing us then we could have avoided the pin to begin with while they were pushing us toward the wall I am sure you can figure out how that would have worked out. However since you pretty much believe that there is no way out of it then I will not even try to explain it. Also knowing your relationship with 1771 I doubt anything I say would even be belived by you. Somehow this thread has turned into a different topic then previously discussed hope this hasn’t affected it too much.
Excuse me? I specifically asked how to get out of one of their pins because I want to know. We’ve had HUGE problems getting out of pins especially at NJ and PA and I want to know how to get out of pins. For example, 1279 who used fans killed us in Philly quarterfinals by pinning and scoring like crazy and in NJ 2753 and 2344 forced us into pins in the Semi’s. Don’t assume things because I am friends with them please, I like your team and robot too.
2753 is currently fanless but they pin like mad.
Having driven against 1771 in 4 matches, with them in about 8, and watched quite a few others, usually their fans seem to help much more with maneuverability rather than pinning. They can make turns much quicker, but in this game pinning is really about positioning. You much kinda wedge your close to their trailer hitch and push at an angle. Other pins usually are fairly easily escapable, fans or no fans. Note the last qualification match of Palmetto, 21 shut down and pinned 1771 and their fans the hole match.
So in conclusion, I have seen fans effective to aid in turning and some acceleration, but dont make a huge difference in terms of pushing and pinning.
Its a fairly simple equation, max pushing force of the drivetrain optimized through traction control, plus an additional 7lbs of force…
they will be able to push more than a normal bot theres not really much to argue
and i’m not gonna yell at him for posting strategies, lol 
It is hard to get out of a pin in this game, as I said we were not yet pinned while we were being pushed in open field. This is when it is critical to maneuver yourself away before getting pinned between two robots or a robot and a wall. The trick is to recognize exactly when you are getting pushed and to start turning out of it by turning your left side fwds and your right side backwards if you are getting pushed on th left side with your trailer behind you. We tried this when we returned to prove it, it is like pushing against a moving wall, and if the opponnent driver does not expect it, it will work. Sorry if I got the wrong impression, and obviously this will not work if you do not have enough manuvering space.
I hope I wasn’t yelling…:ahh:
Bug him for posting strategies would’ve been better wording lol sorry bout that