Day 12
Shooter Prototyping
With a confident intake design now underway and being created in CAD, it was time to put all prototyping time into the shooter. Our goals as a team are to be able to score in Speaker, Amp and Trap. So between the elevator and the shooter we will have a variety of angles and power.
As tested on Tuesday the 16th, we found great success with a 2 horizontal flywheel setup. Our goal for today was to test varying the speeds of both wheels, to give some gyroscopic stability to the Note. We had a setup with 4 Fairlane wheels ran by 2 Neo’s geared 1:1. This was all on a sheet of Lexan mounted at a 39 degree angle.
We tested slowing down the right wheel only as it would be symmetrical either way. We tested varying speed ratio’s from 1:1 all the way down to 1:0.7. Each was tested in 0.05 increments.
Results
1:1 - As expected the ring flew very unsteadily and have significant wobble side to side
1:0.95 - Well after coming home today, I realized we never tested this…
1:0.9 - Tested this, visually looks the same flight path at 1:1 but has more ring stability
1:0.85 - This was the first test that had noticeable longer flight path due to stability while still flying straight
1:0.8 - Very similar to 1:0.85, due to setup constraints it was difficult to see the difference between tests.
1:0.75 - A slight curve was starting to take shape from the spin on the ring. As seen in the video, the outlet was our “straight” target
1:0.7 - And finally, this one showed a large curvature, it was decided to end testing here as we would not want a shot like this or worse.
Intake CAD
Our intake is starting to look like its final version. An issue brought up tonight was that the motor that will drive the intake has no good position. It either interferes with the Note path, or is dangerously close to the swerve module which limits maintenance during the season. As of tonight the motor will remain just above the swerve cover with research into 2 part 3D printed swerve covers being done to ensure access through events.
Hooks CAD
With our climber design, the robot is at risk of falling away from the stage core, this is because our pivot point is not centered on the forwards/backwards axis of our robot. To combat the rotation while we climb and score the note, we designed hooks that would latch to the bottom of the core and prevent us from tipping. The idea is for these to be passive hooks to allow us to minimize moving parts and conserve power. The full design is still in progress and may have a simple motor drop them down when the final 20s is upon us.
Elevator Layout Sketch
Continuing with CAD, tonight the first layout of the elevator was completed. The elevator will have two stages of moving arms and a carriage that can move along the second set of arms. This carriage will contain our climbing mechanism and a pivot point for the shooter.
Battery Leads
This year we will be trying out grasshopper nuts for the battery leads. We are expecting the connection to remain steadier for longer throughout the season. In previous seasons all our leads were tight by event one and slowly got looser by DCMP, failing inspection. We will have updates later in the season as they perform.