hello everyone
im building a vex robot for our schools annual flot parade on the 21st of december, it has to drive at a good speed and about the size of the square bot + 5inches or so because i wanna be able to carry it to school
any1 got any suggestions?
i was thinking candy cane launcher because usually the ppls who make floats give out candy, any1 got any ideas on how to do this?
I don’t really have much experience building a shooter, but I would personally try using two small wheels geared to like… 21:1 (for speed). Then use either another small wheel or intake rollers as feeders.
And try to shoot with that going full speed.
Shooting candy canes? Not sure that will work. Another idea might be to build a large enough arm to reach waist level and have it grab from a bucket on the robot and raise up to give out candy. Also you won’t have any chance of someone getting their eye poked out by a flying candy cane.
Why not make the robot carry a small Christmas tree? With candy on it? 
Edit: Lol, next year FIRST will be having us put candy on Christmas trees 
well… our team built a tank that shoots ping-pong balls.
Unlike the one on previous threads where they shot based on a shooting it under like a catapult system, ours just used a high gear ratio 20:1. We used a small piece of metal and swung it really fast to launch the balls. We just used sprockets and gears to get a high gear ratio. We used a servo to open and close the feeder and had a basket that could hold like 10-12 balls.
But for candy canes, it’ll be hard to place candy canes because of their unique shape, unless you can place it horizontally with the crook pointing vertically. That means you will need a good candy cane feeder.
hope this helps.
It might be possible to use bands as a catapult system to achieve this feat, however, it is safer to just build an arm that hands out candy and the candy cane is less likely to break.
Who else hates candy canes breaking all the time:mad: I get all excited to eat the candy cane, then when I open it, it’s in like 20 pieces:mad:
I like the idea of a catapult system. You could also have some kind of sling-shot or mabey even a air powered one.
Mister-t made one for a parade our team was in it worked really well.
How long is the prade?
you will need some hefty motors to make it go fast for a while:confused:
Be sure to get an extra battery pack if it is really long.
make sure that your launcher will not harm anyone
You get excited about a candy cane?
C’mon, it’s this is Vex. Nobody is going to care about the condition of the candy if they get to see a neato robot rapid hurl them like a gatlin. Heck, maybe some of them would stick to the target, eliminating the need for skillful catching. And you know, you KNOW, if you actually see little johnny knocked off his feet by a candycane or ten, you are going to laugh about it for years and years. Furthermore, when little johnny gets up, he’ll BEG you to let him work the remote!
lol, I have to admit I didn’t consider exploiting Johnny for my own amusement