So by this point we’ve all seen 99999v, Semicolon, 60883D, 2011, PiRobotics etc and their goal tilters. (It’s what they use to tilt the goal under the conveyor belt) My team really wants to make a piston tilter similar to theirs (in the way it functions), but we’ve went through about 5 prototypes and they’ve all failed. We’re using single acting pistons, because our school doesn’t really have umm money and it’s also a pretty new program. Obviously single acting pistons work differently than double acting, so we’ve been trying to keep that in mind while building by reversing the direction of the pistons when possible or reinforcing them with one too many rubber bands. We tried creating little pulley systems or so called seesaw mechanisms but it either takes way too much space or it doesn’t work. We also have a 6 motor drive and a 1 motor mogo lift, and since we’re installing a conveyor soon we can’t use a motor for the other lift.
I’m honestly just looking for some inspirations or directions in the right path, because the robot needs to be finished pretty soon and I don’t want to give up from making it as good as it can be.
With our first idea we didn’t really try to be creative since we saw an idea and we liked it, so we copied it. However, when everything was powered it didn’t have enough power to tilt the goal while also clamping on it. We definitely might have messed something up in the build process, but we tried to fix it or reinforce it, and it didn’t have enough power.
Our second actual attempt came from us only, because we new that since we’re one of the only teams out there making a mogo tilter out of single acting pneumatics we probably should come up with our own design.
Note that this was 100 percent a prototype and it never made it out of that stage, so we never fully installed it. You can kinda tell when something isn’t going to work. We know why that didn’t work since the the angle was only enough for clamping and not pulling so we added a piston that would pull the goal in reverse, but that (althought it somewhat worked) took way too much space
We attached the piston from those towers and this is a picture of it taken apart since I didn’t bother to take a picture of it when it was done for whatever reason.
The other two prototypes were sort of too non functional, so I didn’t take any pictures. They both took so much space, but I can sketch them out later if you’d like to see.
I’m looking for a smaller design that would take no more than 3 pistons to power, and I’ll keep prototyping but I would take some ideas.
Hello there, I recommend you don’t give up and keep trying to make the best back goal lifter you can. I also found it quite difficult to develop a pneumatic back tilter as I went through 3 designs to get it the way I wanted, so just know you are not alone. I think that you are holding yourself back by thinking the single acting cylinders are the problem but in actuality some of the teams you mentioned including myself use the pneumatics as single acting. So even though we have double acting cylinders only one side is actuated and rubber banded back down to save air.
The 2775J mech you showed looked pretty good and maybe changing the placement of the cylinders could get better geometry and or more mechanical advantage to lift the goal. The second design that you had shown also looks good but maybe find ways to make it more compact so its not in the way, or by moving the placement of the cylinders. Possible using two cylinders there as well could also help increase the clamping force but would use more pressure. Just keep trying things until you can figure it out- there is no perfect solution (at least that I could find) so just do your best!
look at 2145z reveal and look at how they did their tilter it only involves active extension so this would be the best design for a tilter using single acting and is pretty simple to make
You need to evaluate what you prioritize in your real goal mech, because all the different mechs you’re looking at have different advantages/disadvantages.
If you’re looking for simplicity, you can use the kind of mech that 60883d or 2145z use, with just a single little latch that props up the goal. This would be the easiest and simplest to execute with single acting cylinders, though it lacks in goal security compared to some other mechs in my opinion. Still probably your best option though.
The mech that I use would be pretty difficult to adapt to single acting, since all the clamping/tilting is done on the retraction stroke of my cylinders. I also separate the clamping and tilting compared to the 2775j mech, which makes it use 3 cylinders compared to 2.
the 2775j mech also uses the retraction stroke to clamp and tilt, but it would be possible to use some sort of linkage to translate that forward stroke into the clamp and tilt motion you want, though that would definitely add complexity.
that’s not really my mech at that point anymore. I mean it’s not that far off, it still preserves the independent clamping/tilting motion, but the method that it achieves that with is pretty different, particular the geometry. It protrudes into the bot pretty far which might get in the way of a ring mech. But good job making those movements work with single acting cylinders.
Initially, we did try to adapt the 60883D design to make it tilt as well as clamp the goal, which was one of the prototypes that failed. We really want to ensure that the goal won’t be easily stolen, so we have to tilt it. We were using 2 pistons for it, but it simply took too much space. We’re designing something right now similar to what 2145z has, but we’ll see how that goes.
We don’t want to cut any corners as we already have a really neat base, lift, and front clamp, so we’re definitely designing something that can tilt, or else it will be to our disadvantage.
reveal coming soon.