Can you help my team we dont know how to build a snailbot

Tell us some ideas we’ve tried a converyorbelt and it didn’t work

I would look at lots of reveals, lots of good simple ones out there that you can take inspiration from.

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what exactly are you struggling with? the design of a robot? the physical construction?

if you’re finding yourself completely lost, it might be wise to start small, building a crunchbot or maybe even a clawbot from instructions. they’re not competitive, but they do teach basic construction principles and can be a good place for new teams to start. from there you could modify them to make them better, or maybe even attempt a bot of your own design.

if you think you can build a hoodbot and you’re just feeling stuck, looking at reveals on youtube is a great way to learn how they work.

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ok yeah I would recommend building a clawbot or a crunch in order to develop some construction skills before attempting a hood.

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The design is what im struggling with

I would recommend, if you don’t understand why a design is good or how to build it, you shouldn’t build it. Do something that you think would be a good idea, and it will likely be in your skill level.

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A common mistake a lot of new and inexperienced teams make is building a robot way out of their level. Just like @9MotorGang said,

I’m not trying to discourage you from building a snailbot. Unless you have the experience, start off with a crunch bot or something easy. I guarantee you that you’ll gain a lot more knowledge about Vex in general this way.
In my first year, my team made the mistake of building a traybot for Tower Takeover (we were inexperienced btw) instead of somehting like a clawbot. It took us most of the season to learn, build, and rebuild our robot, and our final product was half as functional as all the other bots you’d see on Youtube.
So just start off with something easy, and as you progress, building complicated bots like a snailbot will be a lot simpler.

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Like what @rice_boi saying start small and then go big. Me and my partner first built claw bots and in tower takeover, we got help from seniors which gave us a good understanding of what to do.

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I figured it out but thank you guys.

Do you use bearing flats?
Do you support axles on both sides?
Do you meet more than 5x a month or have access to a robot that many times?
Is sleep unnecessary?
Is is bad to cut standoffs?
If you didnt answer yes to all of these questions, you probably shouldn’t try a hoodbot this late in the season and go with a basic claw bot that you can modify with a star struck type claw.

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as long as you account for the fact that the long standoffs are solid in the middle and you cut it cleanly it’s not bad

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You forgot large amounts of energy drinks. I prefer G-Fuel and Bang Energy.

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another way to easily make your designs if your confused is in CAD, i would check out

remembering the best
for all the robotics CAD you could ever dream of

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Hwy guys my team is having trouble. With our intakes fitting in the goal while also being in 18x18

Many teams use what are called “flipout” intakes. These use hinges to pivot out.

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What does it look like?

It looks like you have lots of space on the side. Our team didn’t so we used double flip out. If you go to timecode 19 you can see ours.

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I understand that this wasn’t asked for but I have a few notes of constructive criticism.

  1. You need to get bearing blocks on all of your axles.
  2. Anything more than an inch should be held by shaft collars instead of many many nylon spacers.
  3. Traction fabric or foam would be very helpful on any surface that the ball touches.
  4. An important part of a hood bot is a hood so you should probably make one.
  5. Rubber band rollers will increase your performance dramatically.
  6. Instead of saying that you don’t know how to build things, watch reveals and gain insight through other people’s designs.
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It isn’t always helpful on the hood-on ours, it was providing too much friction, slowing down the ball.

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coming to the forums though with specific questions is also good
super general questions arent always the best but you can search up how to build____ on forums and you will get threads on anything
youtube is your best friend for ideas but please dont holecount(ie copy a bot hole by hole)

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