since the fence is so low you barely need a lift. The idea here is that you have fairly flat robot with a “double flywheel” intake that will suck in the objects onto a platform, then catapulting the objects off the platform. So then you need attach the platform to something that can make it punch. Do pneumatics have enough force to “punch” cubes and stars over the fence from the height of your wheels (lets say 4 or 5 inches)? Does having multiple cylinders (not the tank) help? Or do you need to somehow implement elastics into the equation to provide enough power to “punch” the objects?
I’m not sure If I used the proper terminology, but the picture is what I mean by flywheel intake
It’s called a side roller intake. Pneumatics may have enough power to push stars over, though I have my doubts for cubes. Also, you have to realize that even with two tanks the number of shots you can get off is limited. Someone with more experience can attest to how many shots you’d get with a single-acting piston, but I’d say it’s in the realm of 20 (which is definitely not enough).
You should take into account of how many shots you will need per match before refilling your tanks. If you rely on pneumatic alone to score all your shots what would you do if you run out of air. If you want to catapult them over, i would recommend trying a slip gear because you don’t have to worry about running out of air, and you could use rubber bands to your advantage by determining how much force you would want on your catapult. I’m not saying having a pneumatic catapult is a bad idea, i’m just trying to warn you ahead of time of the disadvantages of just going with pneumatic and relying on them to win a match where you may take multiple shots and the problems you might face. Hope this helps.
The bot you are looking at was a typical toss-up build. The better teams using that design were getting 10-12 full field launches of the beach balls, which weighed 0.9lbs and were elastic (the launcher would compress the ball some small amount and it would expand as it left the launcher.) The cubes weigh 1.68lbs and would absorb a significant amount of that sort of launcher’s energy.
If I were you I wouldn’t waste time with pneumatics this year, I personally would utilize the 12 motors VEX now allows you to use. Having pneumatics poses the problem with the pistons themselves and also the tanks which most likely will need to be filled every match with how much “tossing/launching” will be happening in StarStruck.
The strength of the push/pull of the pneumatic cylinder strength decreases with every actuation because the air pressure decreases. The days of using multiple air tanks on one bot are over, so nowadays it’s more beneficial to use 12 motors instead of pneumatic.
