We would like to share a super simple hatch panel/grabber concept inspired by an old 2011 intake prototype I put together years ago. It seems to work reasonably well and can be quickly mocked up for testing. Let me know if you have any questions!
I’m using 1/8" polycarbonate for the flexible strips and 1/4" polycarbonate for the spacers. The purple string is paracord. I suggest using clamps to figure out your travel, tension, etc. before running bolts through the plastic. I haven’t tried this, but I suspect making the plastic strips wider may help center the hatch.
I assume this is only for the feeder station, not floor pickup (looks like it would have trouble with that)? Looks good otherwise, definitely simple to build.
Correct. Back in 2011 this intake could pick up logos from the floor, but this year’s thin hatch panels would be nearly impossible. This intake would work well for cheesecaking and rookies since it can be actuated using linear or rotational motion, is easy to build, and robust.
Ahh, interesting. 2011 was the year I missed so I wouldn’t have thought of that for tubes but it totally makes sense now that I’m thinking about it. It certainly would have solved the issue so many teams had handling the different shapes that year.
