Orbit balls breaking

[May_Walter]

of course they have…

[abross]

We too have had a problem with breaking balls.

Isn’t there a penalty for breaking the balls?

[nnfuller]

I have to ask the same question in past years they have disallowed robots which posed a threat to game pieces but this any robot that has a roller/conveyor belt based intake will be a potential hazard.

[FixRobot4Food]

We found that we can repair orbit balls using heat shrink tubing.

It seems to work well.

[flyingcrayons]

My guess is that you’d first have to define what it means to be “broke,” which I have yet to see - this is an important question to have answered. Secondly, FIRST is not going to replay matches because of broken items on the field, unless it was clearly “broken” before the match started (and even then it’s sketchy as to what they’d do).

Look at a couple previous year’s games:

Overdrive - No replays for trackballs that were slightly deflated.

The short answer - be able to deal with broken orbit balls.

-Danny

sorry this is maaaaaaaaaddddd late, but…

yeah i remember people were discussing last year that one team got like 7-8 hurdles in one competition even though the trackball was almost completely deflated… i guess we’re just gonna have to deal with the broken balls this year…

[aepstein]

I just noticed FIRST posted, in their Game Documents area, an Orbit Ball repair guide, with pointers where to get the hole punch and plastic rivets. Unfortunately the company only sells rivets with a $100 minimum order.

Has anyone invested in making a large purchase who would be willing to sell lesser quantities to other teams?

[Betty_Krocker]

No those 7 are part of the 120 moon rocks so 78 moon rocks will be put in play during telop

[artdutra04]

I just noticed FIRST posted, in their Game Documents area, an Orbit Ball repair guide, with pointers where to get the hole punch and plastic rivets. Unfortunately the company only sells rivets with a $100 minimum order.

Has anyone invested in making a large purchase who would be willing to sell lesser quantities to other teams?

McMaster sells plastic blind rivets.

[Wetzel]

I have to ask the same question in past years they have disallowed robots which posed a threat to game pieces but this any robot that has a roller/conveyor belt based intake will be a potential hazard.

In all our testing of intakes, lifts, and shooting mechanisms, we broke one band on one ball.

Until we started human player practice, that is. As soon as we started throwing balls long distances, and people started to kick balls back to the human players, balls started breaking left and right. A ban on kicking was only partially successful, but I think that ban was not well followed. :rolleyes:
For repairs, we just cut the seam, taped up the broke part, and pulled the fabric back. We didn’t have any noticeable change in ball give or dynamics vs the fully original ones. Easier, cheaper, and faster than installing plastic rivets. (Paul, wanna race? )

Wetzel