I have a ball intake that occasionally has two balls that just spin in place if they both go in at the same time. Here’s a picture:
Is there any way I could make adjustments to prevent this, or potentially send one ball up first when they both go in at the same time?
you could try putting spacers or something on one of the sides to make sure 2 balls don’t even fit in like that.
You could make one side more of a severe angle, so that, even if they’re intaked at the same time, they’ll hit differently. If done right, this might also make it so one ball pushes the other out of the way.
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What do you think would take less tweaking and testing because we have regionals this weekend and I don’t want to have to make major changes that could affect our programming. Or do you have any other suggestions for ways to solve this problem?
The spacers would be easy to do. I would just compromise and extend one side of the intake angle by a couple of holes.
A quick thing that might help/has helped for me: add a 1 bar “guardrail” to one side. This is kind of flexible so might need readjustment throughout the day, but also it’s easy to bend into shape so that only one ball can fit past at once.
–good luck!
Edit: pic if it’s unclear 
What would you recommend using for the guard rail? Like 1x1 steel? Or something else? And also, I couldn’t really tell by the sketch, but is the guard rail going vertically or horizontally?
I’d just extend what you have there. I’ve Used a short 2 by C channel coupled onto the end of the main channel via a short metal bar on each side.
I’m confused by what you mean, like extend the funnel for the intakes?
Extending the funnel into the back of your intake will likely fix it, PM me for pictures of our guide if you need clarification
Quick potential fix might be adding a rubber band across in the same general area as the guardrail pic above - can just zip tie it from a hole on one of the angled pieces to a hole on the back wall for a quick test. Same concept - trying to get the balls to hit at slightly different times so the wheel has a chance to grab one up before they are both jammed in there. 1x1 metal piece might be better (since it would be more rigid), but we’ve found that lots of little issues can be resolved with zip ties and rubber bands!
@5SRobotics the barrier would go horizontally, in the same plane as your current walls. 1x1 steel has worked for me, maybe 5" long for what you’ve got.