Here is a video of our Hybrid kicker. The first part show the elastic one and then you will see a 1 1/2 " bore 8 " stroke with one clippard storage tank repeatedly fire and make it over a bump 18’ feet away with 30-40 psi. The system uses elastic assist tensioned up to the point that it can barely retract and lock the trigger mechanism for the next shot. With 60 psi it can shoot 25 '. It has a 9 inch leg and moves only 6". We can also fire with out air about 6-8 feet using only the elastic. During the 15 sec test at the end of the video we were able to get 4 shots off from 18 feet away the bump. All of them cleared but the last one that landed on top of the bump.
all this with only one clippard!
We found that a gate latch was fine, but removing some material from the inside radius of the very tip of the release latch helped it release more smoothly.
I noticed from the video that many of the balls did not go in, either bouncing too high or not rolling up the goal ramp. I attribute much of that to the lack of carpet, but I’m wondering if you also noticed that and, if so, did anything to address it?
Thank you for posting that video, it helps us confirm that we’re on the right track. Now for a decent ball control mechanism…
We agree carpet will deaden some of the bounce, we too removed some of the material of the gate latch. You having done all this also confirms to us that we are on the right track!
Have you given any thought as to how you will be mounting it (if you go with this design) and also allow for decent ground clearance (if you plan to go over the bump)?
Also, do you think you will need an on-board air compressor or just some pre-filled air tanks?
We are not going over the hump, we want the tunnel. 1 " clearance
We will have a compressor, and four clippards
We plan on having kickers on all sides of the bot full length of each side
For quick release under load I like the water ski qiuck releases. The fence latch could be modified with a ball bearing on the contact to work in similar way.
We’ve been playing with a similar kicker but we can’t seem to get our piston to fire as quickly as yours does.
If I’m understanding your mechanism correctly, the retracts the kicker to the locking mechanism and then to shoot the piston is “Fired” and then allowed to charge before the locking mechanism is released? I’m sorry if this is a dumb question but it’s something we’ve been struggling with…
If you look at the design it’s pretty clear that they are latching the kicker in a position where the cylinder is extended 3in. They charge the cylinder in this position making the energy stored in the compressed air immediately available (i.e. it doesn’t need to pass through restrictive fittings etc.)
The latch is then released.
However I believe there are some very serious saftey issues coming into play here. Precharging a cylinder and using elastic bands to increase the kicker velocity puts the cylinder well outside its normal operating velocity. From other posts it appears that the cylinders will degrade and become dangers if piston is moving at speeds around 20 in/sec.
From the video I can’t determine the velocity of the piston, but it appears to be moving extremely fast. Because a damaged cylinder could kill someone I highly recommend that you determine the piston velocity and if it is even 15in/sec reevaluate your kicker.
The safety precautions Matt suggests are very important, not only for this type of kicker, but any kicker that has a lot of final velocity (basically any kicker than can get the ball to fly downfield).
The part that contacts the ball will be moving very fast, it needs to be very solidly attached.
I’ll have to look into the final velocity that our piston will travel at. I also saw some of the posts speaking of the dangers of having pistons move around 20in/sec…
