Need help with intake rollers

My current intake rollers can pickup 4 cubes currently without much issue at all. however the intakes don’t seem to have enough compression to pickup more then four cubes. I played with ita bit and discovered if i took a finger and just slightly pushed on the top outside portion of the motor it can intake easily. I have tried getting this compression but always ran into it not being enough or it not being able to intake any cubes at an angle.

please let me know how to get the needed comnpression

please try to use the search bar :slightly_smiling_face: there is a lot of threads on this topic already.

You probably need more bracing on your roller holders though.

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Mount the intakes on hinges, use spacers to tune the compression distance. Making the intakes straight will also help you, it looks like the left intake is bent outwards.

so u are telling me to dismount the rollers from the c-channel arm i have them on now to a hing between them that can swing out. my rollers aren’t in the way of the tray

It’s not necessarily that they are in the way of the tray, but more so that using a hinge allows for variable compression of rubber band tension. That is, the more the intakes want to push out, the more the elastic force of the rubber band increases while also letting the intakes spread ever so slightly. What makes this better than stationary intakes is that stationary intakes have to be super rigidly supported and positioned precisely in the right spot whereas hinged intakes can be placed arbitrarily close and still intake cubes. The tuning required to get stationary intakes to work isn’t worth the effort when you can get similar results with hinges (if not better).

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hard-mounting is easy if you do it like this


You basically put the rollers on stand-offs and brace them like this but it can bend your metal a little and its a very jank solution from my Early Season bot so idk if I would recommend it, but it worked for up to 13 cubes with barely any tuning (you just add spacers for more compression).

Do not do this! Not only that but you have the brace mounted to the outer part of your drive which is unsupported. There is visible bending which is not what you want a robot to do.

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the bending is caused by the inner brace which pulls the rollers together because they are to far apart to get a good grip on the cube. i can take those barces off but is there a different way to pull the rollers together towards the middle?

the side brace simple was an attempt to keep the top of the roller from bouncing off the cube. basically i need better way to get the rollers closer together.

I can get the hings in but that would be taking off the other vraces and my arms being to far apart

Just move the towers closer together and brace both sides behind the tray. It gives the cleanest look and is easy to do.
Will guarantee at least 7 cubes, especially with a hardmount.
I have intakes 5.5 inches apart and they pulled up 7 cubes just fine (which I’m surprised at)

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ok will give it a try. i do have a c channel across the back which keeps the towers themselves from twisting.

yeah Ik you shouldn’t do this but if you need to build a robot in a week it works.

Taking the easy way out is not a proper engineering solution. I think instead of rushing a build you either settle for what you currently have and get it working consistently and reliably, or you find something more feasible for the given time constraint. Either way, the solution you came up with is begging to fail in a competition which is just poor problem solving.

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Well, sometimes you just need a quick fix, and this will technically work in a pinch, but you’re right, this probably wouldnt hold for very long, and you should find another solution as soon as possible.

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