What ideas are you guys considering for a ground intake?
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None. We determined it wasn’t strategically worth it do ground intake, as the 45 notes in the source are plenty, and it wasn’t worth the added complexity (and a corresponding decrease in reliability)
Fun idea: under the bumper intake.
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We originally were against ground intake too but decided it was worth it for auto
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Auto and to pick up missed shots for a shorter cycle time
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its not on our need list but high on our want list because of this exactly. missed shots.
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I feel like it’s worth it to pick up from the ground, yes you can’t just cow herd them into a frame opening like in years past, but the time to cross the field could be cut in half per cycle if there’s one laying out.
I also think that many teams are gonna shy away from it so there will be more rings left on the ground that are unusable and get in the way. It’s of benefit to an alliance to have someone who can “clean up” those game pieces. The rings are 2 inches thick and laying flat on the ground with your bumpers at max height you have 0.5 inches of clearance. If more are stacking up in a corner it could be a problem
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I think the biggest argument to build a ground intake is auto… and I think auto is a big deal.
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Look at the under the bumper intake in our thread for some inspiration:
You’ll have to chance some dimentions but overall an under the bumper for this should end up being smaller and easier to build because it can compress so much.
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We are looking at only ground intake. We may go with an under the robot intake instead of an above the bumper solution.
All I wanna say is this. If you think not picking up the only game piece from the ground is not important you will cringe everytime you drive by one.
In 2017 many teams were burned by this same thinking for the gears. Myself included: Floor Gear Mechanisms
Never Again.
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You can be a top 50% team if all you do is feed from the source, but top 25% teams will need to score multiple Notes in auto.
This decision really depends on what level team you want to be
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Would you mind sharing your need/want list?
In 2017 teams made the mistake of not having a ground pickup. In 2023, teams made the mistake of thinking a tipped cone pickup was important. Which approach will be right this year?
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sure! here’s a post that talks in some detail about it and some photos of our white board with the needs/wants on it
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As a team with a floor-loading gear mechanism in 2017 - big fat meh. It helped at lower levels of play (and earlier weeks when the springs were still extra floppy) when people dropped more game pieces. But at higher levels of play, there were a lot fewer dropped gears to take advantage of.
Meanwhile, there were teams that built fully passive gear holders that could outscore us and 90% of gear teams out there because they finished quickly and got plenty of driver practice.
There are other reasons you may value a ground pick-up higher in 2024 than 2017, but a ground gear pickup was largely a luxury or packaging decision in 2017, much more than a strategic necessity.
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I disagree about it not being important last year. especially for autonomous. which is a place it will be bit this year too
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while it wasn’t absolutely necessary, SO many of the fastest cycling robots had it as a key part of why they were so fast. Even those that didn’t have additional ground intakes, most probably had some way of picking up off the ground. 118, 1323, 4414, 3005, 1678, 2056, 5940, etc all very heavily used ground pickups. additionally, cube bots often just had a ground intake and where very effective.
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Our 2017 ground pickup was the reason for our District Championship and 2 seed at champs.
Grumpy Old Man Rule 3
If a game piece falls on the floor you must be able to pick it up.
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…assuming lots of teams miss shots. I think with fast driving the development cost of making a ground intake isn’t worth saving split seconds on cycles, if saving time at all.
