Hello Vex Forums Community, recently I’ve been watching some videos on the new 8-12 ball catapults that have been teased for hype before Worlds, but I’m curious on how some of the mechanisms that compose the intakes of these robots work. For example in this video by Beyond The Sea (VEX IQ Pitching In (百发百中)——纪念版2 - YouTube), we can these two panels that go up and down to blow the roll of the balls from entering the catapult when firing. We can see that they are connected by rubber bands that stretch out and shrink down to move these two panels. I was curious how this would be possible with a mechanism, or if these two panels were potentially linked to the catapult motor itself. I’m not sure if anyone knows the answer to this question, but I couldn’t see figure out how this mechanism may work without a motor attached to it directly. In a different design and video (Bryan Chen) (VEX IQ 2021-2022 PitchinG IN, save 8 balls, high hanging catapult - YouTube) we can see a mechanism hook up with a rubber band and gear setup. This seems to flip the balls up making it so that we can hold up to 8 balls in the catapult. How do these catapults work? What is the name of this mechanism if there is one? I’m curious about the specifics of how it works.
Thanks,
10XtotheC