Hypothetically speaking is it possible to use pistons or a slip gear to launch the balls in to the goals like in TP or NN.
Yes but just use a fly wheel it is easier, it might not be super useful to shoot balls due to inaccuracy.
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Probably, but why would anyone use a catapult for such a low goal and such huge balls
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Instead of having the balls go through the indexer and the flywheel
The piston will send the ball instantly
Ohhh you’re referring to a “puncher”, at least that’s how it was commonly referred to as in TP. Well two things, you’d probably have a small capacity given the way balls would need to be intaked among other sizing limitations. Second thing is hitting a ball of this size is probably not an effective way of getting it to “fall” into the goal zone. You’d be relying on the backboard which means you have no access to the center goal
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I agree with the comments here.
if you want to shoot the balls into the goals, then flywheel will be your best friend, simply because of the backspin that a single flywheel will produce, and hence allowing the ball to fly in an arch (into the goal).
Catapult and puncher normally will not be able to produce this back spin. Most likely the balls will need the backplate (of the goals) to bounce into the goal.
But it will be difficult to tune your puncher and catapult so accurately that it will drop inside the centre goal nicely though.
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I already have my snail bot built i was just asking if a puncher would be plausible for change up
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pretty sure all of us that replied you are aware of that 
well… think we have given our inputs for punchers and catapults.
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Flywheel is faster and simpler for this game, and doesn’t have a reload time 
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Ermm… this is not true at all.
Every time the flywheel shoot a ball out, there will be a transferred of momentum from the flywheel to the ball, and hence the flywheel will slow down and it will take time to pick up speed again.
But of course depends on the mass and speed of the ball being shot out, and also the mass of the flywheel. the dipped in speed of the flywheel may or may not be significant. And this will determine how much speed the flywheel will need to pick up.
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I disagree cause in my design the flywheel doesn’t slow down cause the hood shoots the ball
I hope you realised that this statement is violating all laws of Physics?
Your hood is just helping to divert the ball into the goal.
it is the flywheel that is providing the energy to the balls.
Looking at the video, the balls are just slightly faster than rolling out of the flywheel, meaning the speed of the ball is slow, coupled with the small mass of the ball, hence the flywheel is not slowing down that much.
but that doesn’t mean the flywheel is not slowed down at all… just not that significant for this situation.
If you look at nbn flywheels, with the speed of the balls flying out, etc, the slowing down of the flywheel will be more significant.
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The hood is on rubber bands to keep compression on the ball thats why it opens and close
Yes… i understand about compression.
But it is still not providing the energy to shoot the ball out.
Do you want to read up on how flywheel works?
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I guess you are right but this is what i meant by the hood “shooting” the balls
Ermm… think you can trust me (i.e. you dont need to 2nd guess me) when i say i understand how flywheels and hood compression work.
Your latest video has just shown that it is the flywheel that shoots the balls and not the hood.
The original purpose of hood is not just to divert the ball to the correct direction, but also to provide a small amount of compression to “squeeze” the ball out so that it will be back spinning as well.
but looking at the angle of your hood, I am not sure if it is providing any back spin. But again, back spin may or may not be necessary for this case.
Your hood is definitely not shooting the balls.
Another way that you can experiment (to convince yourself) is by not even turning the flywheel at all. In fact, dont even let the wheel turns.
Just do a “hungry hippo” style with your hood and see how much can you “bang” the ball into the goal.
So as long as the flywheel is shooting the ball, then it is transferring part of its momentum to the balls, and hence the reason why the flywheel will slow down. But as i said, for this case, the slowing down might not be that significant or obvious that’s all.
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Also, if you did a linear punch, you would probably damage the balls.
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I can’t believe someone has decided to argue that a flywheel has reload time. Bruh. Your arguments should be negligible if the flywheel is good compared to the actual reloads of a puncher or catapult.
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well I mean the reload of a flywheel isn’t always negligible. I think that if you make your flywheel too fast (+1000 rpm probably) it will take a second to get it up to full speed before you can launch another ball, which is why a much slower than normal wheel (600 rpm) might be a lot more efficient because the spinup time is negligible. sure, you can’t launch from far, but the reload of the launcher will lead to a quicker cycle time.
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Notice how I didn’t say negligible in the absolute sense, but relative to a catapult or puncher. And yes, it would be less because there’s not much reason to have insane speeds with this game.
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