This is what I currently have and it doesn’t really work. How do I figure where to put rubber bands that works better. this design currently can only pull up 3 to 4 cubes and the first one has to be forced against something else to keep it from sliding away.any help to suggest how to adjust the rubber bands would be great. thank you
First of all you really need something to stop your intakes from angling in like that. Just a simple screw to prevent the intake from rotating in so much. Secondly, your band placement looks ineffective. Since you have the intakes angled in like that Im guessing you also had to sacrifice extra banding just so that the cubes can come in initially. Once you fix the angling issue, add some more bands and put them in a more effective spot. Right now you have one mounting point of the bands super close to the intake joint and the other mounting point much further away, I say move both of the mounting points to where they are about equal distance from that hinge point. It might not sound like much, but it should help.
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You probably need hardstops to catch the intakes so they don’t bend into each other so much, but that wont solve your compression issue, that will just help you intake cubes easier. (Make the intakes look like this —> | | not this —> V , I guess 
) But anyway, to fix compression, have you tried just adding more bands? If your intakes flip out, like it looks like they do, and you can’t add more bands without them snapping, the only thing I can tell you is that its just trial and error. Experiment with different positions of the standoffs holding the bands, and different lengths between the standoffs. Find the combination that works best for your robot, since there is not really a universal way to mount bands that works for everyone. Every robot’s bands are different.
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already have a ton of rubber bands on there thought which is the problem and I know why something is wrong
Question: Do your intakes have to flip out at the start of a match? Also if you don’t have a lift arm, you could fasten the fronts of your intakes to the front of the base so they cant move. (if your intakes don’t flip out, of course.)
they do not flip out. however you notice they hang so they canm form around a cube and increase grip also the V shape they make helps with cubes already in not slide back down and continously jump around as this was an issue before. note before i had them hard mounted.
What I might say is
#1: add a stopper like @Gameoa said
#2: if this is a simple tray, hardmount the intakes and adjust compression with spacers, and if complex tray(arms move up to score in towers), brace the arms and move the intakes in. Adjust them from there.
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That’s true, you will lose the ability of the intakes to flex, but that does not change the fact that you can intake cubes. It will be worth it in the long run to straighten your intakes, though it is creative to angle them like this to keep the stack in, it does seem like it could be the reason why, like you said, it struggles to intake the first cube, and this could be really annoying when you are on the field trying to intake cubes in the middle of the field when you don’t have a wall to push the cube in. You can still easily achieve the right amount of compression to hold the stack in with vertical intakes.