The Shamper & Top/Bottom Shooter Prototype Update
We’ve been working hard on trying to understand the different parameters that influence shooting a note.
One thing we learned: Shooting from the wing is going to be very difficult to do consistent! 
We’ll be updating you on two different prototyping concepts in this post.
Top/Bottom Shooter
- Powered feeder roller with a 1:1 NEO on 4" stealths.
- Top & Bottom roller with 10mm compression (40mm distance between the wheels) powered with a single 1:1 NEO.
- Width of the feeding plate is similar to OD of the note.
The Shamper
Based on our lessons learned of the intake and our Drainpipe Amp proto we present: The Shamper!
- 3" feeder roller with compliant wheels 1:1 on NEO.
- Top & Bottom rollers are 3" colsons, separately powered on 1:1 NEO.
- Amp rollers are 2" stealth wheels powered from the bottom roller.
Parameter Testing Top & Bottom Shooter
We fired plenty of notes today, shot a lot of footage and changed a lot of settings.
A couple lessons learned:
- Compression:
We started with 1" compression based on the other videos we saw from other teams. Eventually we decreased the compression to 10mm and this increased our shot consistently, plus the NEOs were sounding less suffering.
- Full roller width vs. with gap in the center:
Having wheels in the center of your roller will make it so that the NOTE gets sucked in and completely deforms, which for us didn’t work on longer distances.
Removing the center wheels and stacking them on the side with a gap in the center increased consistency for us. Here’s a video with a full top roller:
- Guiding rail adjustments for feeding:
One thought we had was feeding the notes a little bit compressed. Like the picture below.
This didn’t work as hoped, and eventually we removed the side tubes again to adjust the width to the normal OD of the note.
(The top & bottom wheels weren’t adjusted yet on the picture, with testing we changed up the spacers for more contact area between the NOTE and the wheels)
Here’s the top & bottom shooter at work!
The shooter prototype below scored 6 out of 13 notes which for us wouldn’t be consistent enough to take the gamble but rather drive up to the speaker closer.
Shooting from Wing Line distance
The Shamper
As said, we loved our intake and our Drainpipe Amp proto which was the inspiration for The Shamper. An integrated shooter with amp scoring mechanism.
Here are a couple screenshots from the design to make the working principle a little bit more clear.
So the NOTE gets fed through belts and pulleys into the rollers. But changing the direction on the rollers, we can re-direct the NOTE to go into the amp or shoot straight.
Amp shot with dual 2" roller
Worked great, both 2" rollers were powered, and we were curious if we needed the second smaller roller. Removing it was a quick test, and it turned out to work just as good. So we’ll go for a roller less if we continue down this path.
Amp shot with single 2" roller from distance
Shooting from a little bit further away to see how far we could get.
The shot is from just a little past the podium, like halfway stage. For this configuration, we need the middle colson on the roller to make sure we can re-direct the NOTE in its path.
Shooting from a closer distance didn’t seem to affect it too much, and it was quite consistent. We’re getting the feeling that this concept could be a pretty clean and simple shooter & amp mechanism which might not be able to shoot long distance but would be great with good software and lots of driver practice!
Archetype decision on Sunday!
Tomorrow will be the day that we make our final decision on our archetype. From there we’ll be detailing our CAD and preparing electronics & software. You can expect some sketches & dimensions for our first ALPHA robot tomorrow!
Pros & Cons of the notes!
Being lucky to have multiple notes we’ve seen quite some wear on it after a heavy day of prototyping and testing. We can imagine a lot of them going to be in a bad shape throughout events…
Besides that, shooting with 1 or 2 notes might give you the feeling that your shot is consistent. We’ve built quite some high fidelity prototypes with motorized feed, and the shot inconsistency between NOTES has been pretty bad. So watch out!
