Flywheel Help

We have a pretty good flywheel robot. The only problem is how do make the flywheel shoot farther?

You could…
a. Increase the gear ratio.
b. Change the compression/amount of contact with the wheels.
c. Change the angle.
d. Run your motors faster, if they aren’t at 127.

Thanks. What do you think would work best, though?

You have to find a combination that works best. Your gear ratio needs to be increased from what it is now. See how the wheels compress the ball. In your case I would have to see it shoot to see if you need more/less compression. The angle should probably be a bit higher if you want to shoot into the high goal from that low. And as @g_sawchuk said you could put the motors at a higher speed

Prototype and discover what works for your needs.

Yes. Try different things and search the forums if you are having a hard time. You may have an easier time shooting further if you had more motors on your flywheel, but I’ve seen full court shots being made by 2 motor throwers.

From what I see in the photo it looks like you’re using four-inch wheels?
A lot of teams are having a lot of success with four-inch wheels, and one of my favorite reveals is watching 6210z’s robot shooting 4 high goals in less than a second. (It’s so satisfying to see the balls drop in so quickly. :D)
However, our team tried everything we could with four-inch wheels- changing gear ratio, adding motors, adding rubber bands, etc.
The one thing that changed our double flywheel the most (from shooting maximum +/- 6 ft. to full court and even past the goal), was changing to five-inch wheels.
Five-inch wheels and turbo motors are what give power to our flywheel. With only two motors (though, four seems to work even better), we have been able to shoot full court on only about 90-100 power with a relatively low gear ratio.

Whatever modification you decide to stick with, good luck!

We use four inch wheels w/ 6 torque motors. 25:1 gear ratio. if we changed our angle to 45deg then we would be doing full court w/ about 45 power to the motors. If we turn that up to 127… well let’s just say some of the lights in the department aren’t working anymore.

My point is that this combination does work well. We have changed the angle to be more like 30deg though because we prefer a more bullet like trajectory.

We have this same combination, but it is insanely inconsistent. How did you get it to be inconsistent?

PID control. It helps massively.

As has been stated several times, making your angle higher might be the easiest thing.

Check out: Trajectory - Wikipedia

45 deg. any higher and your distance starts getting shorter. I can write out a proof of this if need be.

Do you use IMEs or encoders? I partly feel that encoders add a significant amount of friction to the flywheel.

we use encoders. We found they’re better.

Is there a way to reduce friction caused by the encoder? I imagine gearing down would help, but would also cause your encoder to be less accurate.

It doesn’t cause any affecting friction if it is lined up correctly. We added some grease as well just to be sure.

What exactly did you grease? The I hope not the inside of the encoder?

Nope the outside. To be honest they spin very freely on their own.