We are using sliders on our arms for flipout, and they break off very easily. We considered adding more sliders (to the other side) to make it impossible to break off, but that increases the weight by a lot.
I’ve never seen other bots do this, so is it effective at all? If not sliders, what are some other options for flipout; we previously had a horizontal flipout, but the amount of compression we needed would literally bend the metal.
Try avoiding vex linear slides altogether, they are very bulky and not very good in general. I have never seen sliders but I can recommend 4 alternatives. They are listed in order of best to worst(in my opinion).
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No Flipout
In my opinion, this is probably the best design if you have the space for it. It makes the deploy very simple and is very easy to tune for compression when built correctly. It is very efficient and self-explanatory.
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Flip Down Intake
This is probably the second best option in my opinion, where the intake fall downwards. This is a great option because there is no motion along the axis that compression must take place, thus keeping constant pressure applied on the cubes for smooth intaking.
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Flip Out Intake
This design has its flaws, but can still work extremely well. However, it is very important to note that these types of flipout should probably have some sort of locking mechanism so that they cant flex outwards. In this way, you will have rubber bands for compression and a physical stop to ensure that compression is not lost.
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Sliding/Four Bar Flip out
Finally, there is a four bar or sliding flip-out, similar to what you have. It keep the intakes on some sort of forward/backward moving mechanism so that they can slide forward into place. These tend to be the worst of the four in my opinion, but they can still work out well.
Keep in mind that any flip-out design can work well if it is well tuned and well built, I am only suggesting alternatives.
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I tried a similar idea. No matter what you do, as long as you have an intake on it. Nothing you can do will make it work. I spent too long trying to figure that out, don’t repeat my mistake.
a flip up intake also is a new thing that people are doing
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I think a flip down would still be better in this case because gravity is now working with you instead of against.
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problem is actually some gravity when my team did it our flip down had the tendancy to “break” where the bands were which ruined our compression untill we repositioned the arms
You could try losing a couple rubber bands. That might fix the problem.
the problem was a lack of bands because the arms would go down and then intake assembly would not be paralell to the arm
Sorry, I don’t follow, so you had so many bands it would break your intakes, but you didn’t have enough bands to keep the intakes parallel?
no we didn’t have enough bands to counteract our arms going too low. our hinge was mounted so the top C channel was level with arms. when arms went too far down intake went up enough to ruin compression
Ah, I understand now.
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