Questions About Intake

So I’ve been doing research on intake options now that my team has a drivable chassy, and I had an idea of using some type of spinner. I was just wondering if anyone had an idea about what I could use besides Omni-wheels, and how good of quality it would be. I figured I could use the spinners for not just intake but also match reload if I added a third one on the top that connects to the intake, but I don’t really know how to do that :sweat_smile: I just want some advice from people with experience :smiley:

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This would depend a lot on the resources available for your team, but there are a few solutions/ways that you could use for your intake. By “spinners,” I assume you mean some sort of wheel or mechanism that spins to intake triballs.

In terms of wheel type, flex wheels tend to be used a lot more often for mechanisms such as the intake due to the varying sizes and durometers that you can choose from. There are quite a few examples of this being implemented within existing Over Under robots, which you could probably find within other threads in this forum and elsewhere online. From what I’ve seen, this seems to be the most common wheel used within intake mechanisms and is used often for many teams who have an intake.

Rubber band rollers are another option that you could consider, although this is not too common lately and was mostly used when flex wheels weren’t legal yet in VRC. You could probably also find other examples of this being used (most commonly in older seasons), such as in this thread I found:

Of course, whatever you use should be decided by you and your team! I encourage you to try different options if you have enough time since that is the most effective way to determine what’s best for your team.

I’m not too sure what you’re referencing here (reference diagrams could be helpful). However, you should note that match reloading for VRC doesn’t necessarily require you to use some mechanism to insert the triball into the robot since it is completely legal to place the triball directly into the robot (for example, into the intake), provided it complies with other rules relating to match loading. From what I imagine your current design may look like, you could use gearing or chains to connect your existing ‘spinners’ to other mechanisms that you might want to use the same motor.

Even if you don’t know how to do that, you could still experiment with your design! There is a ton of reference material online that you could refer to if you’re unsure about anything.

Don’t worry! I don’t really consider myself to have a lot of experience either, but you could really learn a lot from resources that other teams provide online, whether that be reveal videos, posts, guides, etc. You’ll have a lot of time to refine your skills if you continue during VRC, and hopefully, you could guide others later on as well!

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Let me guide you through this image

As you see, there are 3 spinners (I don’t draw good on chrome… only on paper lol)
I was thinking, the 2 bottom ones labeled “Intake” would be used to Store triballs. However, if spun long enough, it comes into contact with the third spinner, and then the third spinner activates after the other 2 have deactivated, and the third one sends the triball into the field

Does this clarify at least some?

I see what you’re trying to do and I think it’s a good idea, but I personally think that there could be some redundancies that you could try to improve upon

I think that the top spinner and the spinner at the bottom are necessary for your intake, and it will probably also be very helpful if they work in tandem to intake a triball. However, I find that the second spinner that is part of your intake (the one I’ve circled) seems to be unnecessary to me since its main functionality is simply just to introduce match reloads to the robot (unless there is some other functionality that I’m not seeing). Instead of introducing match load triballs through the second spinner, you could probably place it directly on the bottommost or third spinner, and it’ll be able to be introduced into the field if you reverse the intake or if you use the third spinner that you’ve suggested.

Don’t forget that you can only possess one Triball at a time. As a result, you can’t store multiple Triballs on the robot at once.

Do let me know what you think though! If you have the time, you could try and experiment with this design. I think I see a potential use of utilizing your design with 3 wheels/spinners, but it’s not for match loading but something else instead.