Out of curiosity, as well as friendly competition, I would love to hear from other teams what they have gotten for their minibot.
Currently, we range from 2.9 - 3.1 seconds.
To see an image of the bot as well as a more detailed explanation:
http://jcoinster.blogspot.com/2011/01/frc-minibot-2011.html
I had had the idea of starting a thread about this but you beat me to it! Anyway here is a video of our prototype in action, we tried one like yours but it failed too many times…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IKLSgfXqcM
It probably kept failing because of the center of gravity issues, we actually gave up on it too but then realized the next day that it could be fixed. Good Luck!
Thats what i keep trying to tell the rest of our minibot subeam, they dont believe me.
I can relate.
When you had the similar design, was there a guide bar along the side? Without that bar, it wouldn’t work. At one point, we mounted a dummy gear as a counterweight 
We tried guide bars in 3-4 different spots but the bot went off in one direction or another, we got more tetrix hardware in though and a may give the other, more simple (deployment wise) bot another try again tomorrow.
Heh. One of our prototypes is of this design. We just got our batteries yesterday, and have yet to complete the wiring, but it’s good to know that we’re on a good track in terms of ascension time.
The center of gravity issues took some tuning, but we got it so that the minibot can hang on the pole without support or power.
Have you considered a deployment system?
The smallest and sometimes accidental mistakes can lead to a big improvement!
Did you use a weight to substitute the battery?
My team tried to do FTC in 2008, so we have a battery. Problem is, the battery doesn’t charge. Thus the need to order new ones.
So yes, we did technically use a weight to substitute a battery.
Did you check the fuse? We honestly were stumped at how our new battery wouldnt work for a good hour. :o
Does this include deployment time? It seems like that will be just as important as how fast it climbs.
I think it’s safe to say that this number is without deployment. It would need a rocket to go up that fast including deployment 
We have! I was working on a simple pneumatic deplorer today. I don’t have any pictures however…
I’ll get a video of it tomorrow and post it.
Can’t wait to see it!
The same thing happened to us. Eventually Figured it out though…
Deploy <1 second, climb<2.5 seconds, maybe even 2 seconds.
That is the target.
Right now we have the concepts on the deploy and the practice on the climb. Still working on the return to ground without touching the deployment device.
Starting to get fun!
our deployer= 2 pneumatic pistons and a limit switch, videos will be posted later today.
Have you considered just reversing your mechanism or the whole hostbot away from the tower?
That’s a really fast deployment, nice work!