We are beginning to research and test flywheel designs and were using the Spin Up Kinematics tool to decide on the ideal angle off the ground.
For those of you who have built tested a flywheel already, how do your results compare to what the Kinematics Tool said?
Like at the angle you currently have your flywheel, if you were to put it in the Kinematics tool, where would it say you could make shots from (at set velocity or varying)? And then, where could you actually make shots from?
It is close enough, but doesn’t compare to actually testing. To figure out what the best angle is you first need to know the vmax of your flywheel. At that point you can just test the distance that it shoots at a given angle.
For anyone coming across this thread, I’m assuming that @Bb3456 is referring to the tool I made: A Desmos Graph that uses Kinematic Equations to model the flight of an object in flight such as a disc. In the original post, I acknowledged the inherent inaccuracies of this method. These equations (See the complete math in the original post linked above) do not factor in air resistance. They do not factor in any lift forces the disc may generate. (Although these may not be significant based on @seenSeal 's testing in the topic “Are Discs Frisbees: No?”
Several people made simulations that to my understanding factored in lift and drag. One of these was @LastMinuteFix who concluded that there weren’t major differences between the data generated by my kinematic graph and the MIT paper on Frisbee flight that they also shared. Keep in mind this is still a model and won’t be totally accurate.
I made this tool to get a rough idea of how fast the discs would need to be launched and how a launcher could be configured to be usable at a wide range of distances away from the goal. It was useful when making CAD Designs because it allowed us to pick an approximate angle for the model to be based on. Of course, we will plan to adjust the real-world robot but this provides a useful starting point.
Of course, this is a model of reality. It is certainly not perfect but In my opinion, it is useful. From my perspective, the general consensus from the several people who reviewed my method (Such as @LastMinuteFix in the post linked above)was that it was generally pretty close to reality or at the very least useful to help build. Nothing will beat real-world testing but I think this tool helps get closer to the ideal launch parameters with less testing.
Let me know if you have any questions about how the tool works or its accuracy. Note that I included all of the math I used in the original post and tried to explain everything)
(Edit spelling & Wording)