Shooting Mechanism Help and Guidelines

VEX V5 General Discussion Technical Discussion
#1

Hello, I made this conversation to help teams trying to make a flywheel. There are 5 main tips,

  1. Compact. Make the flywheel as compact and as possible so as to keep your bot fast and to conserve space.
  2. The shroud. I have found that this is the make or break for the robot. The shroud should either be a perfect consistent distance from the center of the wheel OR it should be relatively loose and progressively get tighter until it gives more pressure at the end. Shrouds should be made with vex foam and lexin. (plexiglass or plastic or whatever)
    3, Friction. A flywheel is the hardest shooting mechanism to make because the wheel needs to have the most minimal points of contact and needs to have no drag so that it can spin at max speeds. To do this use bigger gears and drill holes in the metal so that the actual shaft for the wheel will only have 2 points of contact on the metal.
  3. Cartridges. Use turbo, it’s superior.
  4. Wheels. Some say more contact on the ball is best but that is a common miss conception. Having one wheel will create less weight on the motors causing more speed, less drag, and less charge up time. I prefer double wrapped rubber bands around those patterned flat tires.

I hope that this list of guidelines might help teams in the future because making the shroud alone for my team took like 4 or 5 hours to perfect. Good luck in the remaining season!!

#2

or use a catapult

1 Like
#3

Or a puncher.

But that’s not the point here. Thanks for making this thread to compile hours of discussions into one place.

#4

Thanks for posting this 333A. Can you expand on your knowledge of the shroud and your process for tuning it? I think this is where most teams get stuck. It is a great topic to illustrate the engineering design process and using a scientific approach to solving a tough problem.

I’ve seen too many flywheels scraped because teams don’t know how to make it shoot properly and just give up.

#5

@mastachyra To attach your shroud use 6 points of contact. the 2 on the top of the lexin to create the arc. Two connecting the lexin horizontally to the flywheel, and then add a c channel on the back to prevent bowing and attach two supports down to your drivetrain or base. you should also have another c channel at the top or a couple layers of the bendable 1 width metal. That way your flywheel will stay consistent and won’t bend over time. try to also center the ball on the wheels as best you can so as to avoid imperfections while shooting and to limit the changeable variables.

#6