Ball Holder

[Sunny]

I'm convinced that we're putting too much pressure on the ball. In all of the videos below, The ball rolls *with* the roller. Right now, Our ball is jamming up under the roller. That caused the motor to stall, and ultimately causes the roller to not function. A good way to fix it would probably increase the roller height. Getting torque on the roller would help, but it will still grip the ball to do much good.

We can't exact move the "backing" forward because the kicker was designed for the ball to sit 3" into the robot. Without a decent start position, we don't get a decent kick.

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE8ohsSVCXg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QsjmuY_CP0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj2lx6FwVXg


So, going along with the sucking mechanism for intake, I found the videos below.

They are all using some sort of impeller. It looks a little bit more than what Dallas bought, but it might be worth hooking up Dallas's fan and seeing if that works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_dnzebFqDk

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showt ... post915751 (Sorry a pic, but the impeller is clearly visible).

I did a search for google on air impeller, but I quickly realized I have no clue exactly what I'm looking for and plus, I'm not sure what to look for even if I found a website that sold impellers.


The intake system is one that requires the most attention right now because it will be so critical to control the ball in a match. Whether we choose to go with rollers/air, both systems needs to work, and they need to work extremely well.

[Tanner]

I think if we play with the roller a bit more, we might find a sweet spot. The speed of the roller is fine, perhaps even too fast, but it seems more like we're beginning to draw the ball under the robot, rather than have it sit in front of the robot spinning. Either raise the lifter or figure out a better material.

What if we split a piece of surgical tubing down the side (like dissecting a worm) and zip tie it to a axel? Worth a try since we already have a naked axel on the robot...

I'm not sure where we'd put a impeller on the robot or how we'd get one in 2-3 days.

-Tanner

[Michael Kapp]

I think that now that we have the roller chained better, we can try the blue roughtop again, or maybe even the unobtanium. It should definitely work better than before.

[Sunny]

I think that now that we have the roller chained better, we can try the blue roughtop again, or maybe even the unobtanium. It should definitely work better than before.

Unobtanium is definitely a no-no. That roller was stalling out the window motor, and it face no problem stalling out the FP motor.

[freds]

I am wondering if the green roller might be best.

Some of these are just incredible. Obviously not designed by the students on the team.

We can get it done though!

[Sunny]

I am wondering if the green roller might be best.

Some of these are just incredible. Obviously not designed by the students on the team.

We can get it done though!

. I was playing with my water bottle after robotics, and I realized that maybe, if it I spun it at 3000 RPM, it will create significant amount of attraction.

I think that the green tube *just* might work. And even then, some teams have used "spray on rubber". I've never worked with that, but may a light coating wouldn't be bad.

Although, if we do choose to go with the green tubing, we'd have to mount the roller higher and further into the robot to accommodate the roller and get the ball the full 3" into the robot.

[Tanner]

*thought my idea about using the tubing was pretty clever*

-Tanner

[Michael Kapp]

I think that we may be able to reimplement the roller. If we put a limit switch on the backing so that when the ball pushes back on it, the roller stops, and when me move and the ball stops pushing back on the backing, the roller starts up immediately to keep the ball in. This is better than nothing. We really should consider this option.

[Tanner]

I think that we may be able to reimplement the roller. If we put a limit switch on the backing so that when the ball pushes back on it, the roller stops, and when me move and the ball stops pushing back on the backing, the roller starts up immediately to keep the ball in. This is better than nothing. We really should consider this option.

That might work. Or the limit switch might get annihilated.

If we do decide to try it again, I think trying to replicate the circumstances with the old wooden frame and having the wood bar. Though we might need to identify the problem a bit more. I'm probably repeating something I asked today, but what is our problem?

Is our problem...

• ...the roller?
• ...the backing?
• ...the speed?
• ...the torque?

-Tanner

[Michael Kapp]

I thought that the problem was that the roller had so much speed and/or torque that it forced the ball back so hard that it mauled the backing. (why couldn't this have been fixed with a stronger backing?)