Here is SPAM’s Lunacy robot. Can’t wait for the florida reginonal! Good luck to everyone. (this was taken about a week ago before we put the saftey mesh on the fan)
im interested… i have heard of teams using a fan to deflect balls, but is it effective? if so, how effective?
That fan was awesome, and extremely effective. Not as much for deflecting scoring, but for propulsion.
For everyone who is skeptical about fans and there use in this game 180 will prove you wrong. Well done SPAM.
I think the intent would be for propulsion and not deflection balls. If it is for deflecting balls I’m pretty sure it would be illegal per one of the updates.
Not very. I’ve read in a few places where teams that are using fans mentioned this. They all seem to agree that the ball has too many holes to catch much wind. Especially since they aren’t able to focus the wind on the ball.
Edit: No, there is no rule against using a fan to deflect the balls. The update says you can’t use a fan to remove balls from the trailor.
Not illegal per this Q&A. However, I don’t think it is feasible due to the aerodynamics on the MOON ROCKS (IMHO).
Looks good SPAM! I cant wait to see it in action.
Lovely Bot, any vids of this bad boy in action.
Doh, missed that one.
We designed the fan for populsion not deflection. I don’t think it would help much since, as stated above, the holes in the balls let to much air through. However when you stand behind the fan when its on it is like being in a hurricane
Do you guys have any video of your robot running with pneumato-boost?
A comparison video would be awesome… fan vs no fan acceleration. I’m really surprised it makes that big of a difference.
Way to think outside the regolith! 
-q
I don’t have a video, but i did see them pushing us sideways on carpet while gaining speed multiple times at our scrimmage. No amount of traction control is good against that fan.
I knew it. 4 wheel drive
Wow, I want to see it in action. (:
Personally, out of all the robots I have seen so far, this one is one of my favorites. S.P.A.M. has “two” 4wd. One that makes them go forward and backward and the other that allows them to move side to side. Their fan makes them incredibly fast and they run away from you like no tomorrow. They are also able to push you around. The fan puts out 10lbs of thrust. Their scoring mechanism is very cool as well. It has little “fingers” that picks up the ball and keeps it in until they want to score it. They are very fast as scoring as well. Their fan doesn’t really deflect the balls as they don’t turn the fan on unless they are trying to run away from others or trying to push them around. I would be very surprised if they decide that the fan is illegal on this machine. I can’t wait to see it in action again.
i’d just be concerned at what the safety judges will say…
what rpm are you running?
what do you have to stop hands, fingers .oose nuts and bolts, broken bands from orbit balls etc… from getting in
hope it works…
we’re just a rookie team with a standard kitbot… sadpanda…
although, we did notice that our narow orientation was alot better at pushing than some of the wide robots (they’ll have issues with non-bumper contact…)
I think they have safety mesh on now. Looks like they have the minimums “suggested” by FIRST, so they should be good.
However when you stand behind the fan when its on it is like being in a hurricane
I don’t have a video, but i did see them pushing us sideways on carpet while gaining speed multiple times at our scrimmage. No amount of traction control is good against that fan.
Tell all of your alliance partners good luck. They’ll need it just as much as your opponents will. :rolleyes:
Sweet. A little bird had already hinted to me about the prop.
Where’s the camera? Certainly Eric has some autonomous plan up his sleeve.
Hows the weight?
Looks VERY competitive.
i believe now were only like 1lb over weight and yeah eric and mike got some nice stuff up their sleves for auton i hope and we did put mesh on it and we had every meember of the team try to stick there fingers in it and no one could get passed their 2cnd knuckle:yikes: