Low Hang using 4-bar

Can anyone provide pointers on low-hang mechanism for this year’s Pitching In challenge? If you have been able to successfully do a low hang using 4-bar I have some questions and will truly appreciate your help.

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Hi there, welcome to the community.

There are some threads going with some nice robot designs in them. I’m am not in IQ, so I don’t know much, but here are the threads:
Thread 1
Thread 2

Also, about the four-bar, I don’t know how high yours goes, but it can’t exceed 19" per expansion rules.

I hope this could help!

Edit: added another link

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Hi and welcome,

As someone who has experimented with various types of low hangers, I’d recommend something closer to a single-jointed arm for low hanging. Although a 4-bar could potentially work, there is a much more efficient way to do it, and if you do it right I’m pretty sure you could even make a passive low climber (although I haven’t tried it).

One more note, considering how few points climbing is compared to a value of a ball in the high goal, I’d recommend going for the balls first because that can get you many more points than low (or even high) climbing. Once you can score all the balls though, that’s when I’d focus on hanging.

If you are willing to share you robot design, I’d be happy to help you design a low climber. Good luck!

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Hi, I’m new here and would love some help with our low hang for Pitching In! Our kids have to hold the remote control while it is hanging at the end of the match and that is not allowed, I don’t think. How do we get it to hang and STAY? We are a new program and have much to learn!

Amy

What programming software are you using? Your students need to set the motors to ‘hold’.

I was involved in IQ back in next level so I have a bit of experience with low and high hang designs. You can create a faster mechanism using less motors and gear by using rubber bands. This was done by one of our teams that year, they did quite well with it.

We are using Vexcode. Do we set the program even for Driver Control?

That sounds intriguing. Not sure how but thank you! I’ll share with my 7th graders.

Try attaching a rubber band to peg on the arm then attach the other side of the rubber band to a c-channel at the bottom of the robot. Do this on both sides. This will make it so when the motors are active you can easily lift the arm, but when the motors are of the arm should retract and make it so the robot stays hanging.

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Yes. So, in VEX Code, your students will see the ‘hat block’ (a block with a rounded part on top of it so it can’t connect to any other blocks) that says ‘When Started’. They need to find the block that says ‘set ________ stopping to _______’. They will need to set the first blank to the name of the motor or motor group that is controlling the lift. They need to set the second blank to hold. Then, just connect that block to the ‘When Started’ hat block. Do this in every program where it needs to hold, including driver control. Let me know if that works or if you need some more assistance.

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Ah, I see what you mean. Thank you very much!

Great, we will try this tomorrow! Thank you so much.

This really did work for a hot minute! We need to reinforce the bot a bit though. Maybe our arm is not strong or long enough. Still improving–thank you for your help!