After seeing the proliferation of the “NZ design” at competitions, and after building a tournament-winning one in a few weeks, I decided to have a crack at the “super stacker” design, marathoning it out over my spring break, mainly for the lulz at Worlds. (with improvements, of course)
No, I’m not insane.
Photos and other updates about the construction process are HERE.
If you have any comments or advice, please use this thread for your discussion.
I’m reminded of the Vice Roy’s quote from Star Wars: Episode One:
“This is getting out of hand! Now there are two of them!”
Good work! My teammates asked me why we were devising strategies to beat the super stacker if the odds were slim that we’d go up against it. Now the odds have doubled!
Now there’s the possibility of the World Finals being Super Stacker + Wallbot vs. Super stacker + Wallbot.
Although, I think to beat the efficiency bots, the super stacker’s going to need a scoring ally to give it extra bonus points and utilize the negator. Our robot can defend AND score! You could pick us and 404E and we’d be unstoppable!
One question: The back looks like a solid bar. How are you going to achieve the stacker’s famous “split?”
The robot will not split, but have a multi-stage unfolding mechanism with at least two joints. I thought copying the splitting mechanism is for the inventiveness challenged. :rolleyes: The bar we have on there now connecting the two sides is just to test proposed width against 18".
EDIT: now that i think of it…hmmmm.
gets out designer notebook
Is that a 5:4 ratio on the wheels with a 6-motor drive? Seems like it will be much faster than 1107’s Super Stacker.
Has your team already decided that this is the robot you will take to World’s or are you building this just to see how it turns out?
it’s 5:3 6-motor drive, but that’s vestigial from the half-built NZ bot and is going to be changed.
This is our only robot so far. I built lots of prototypes, but I didn’t really like any of them, hence this.
all i can say is a HUGE round of applause for attempting this just weeks before Worlds!
and i wish you the BEST of luck at worlds!
here are some tips from the original stacker!
you might want to gear *down * your drive, dont think we revealed what our “new” ratio is, but you’d be surprised!
whats your arm ratio right now?
remember, you need enough power in the arm to lift ~15 objects!
just keep that in mind 
and those ratchets look clean!
(and try to use more lexan ;))
I beleive that you guys could get a pretty solid robot built in just a couple of weeks. My team built our robot in just 6 hours time and took it to a skills challenge that weekend and it did pretty well. Cant wait to see a second super stacker at worlds. Good luck.
It’s just me over spring break 
And murdo,
That’s the old ratio from the half-finished nz bot. Haven’t bothered changing it yet.
You sure your team’s OK with you deconstructing their robot? 
//Andrew
I’m the captain, I make the rules.
Besides, I basically built the robot to begin with.
(I tend to tear things apart and start again quite frequently)
Thought so.
//Andrew
This statement I like.
Wooooo! Someone else is trying this. The best of luck to your efforts, and we’ll see how this turns out.
Suggestions:
-Use lexan. I know you said you didn’t want to, but… why not? It’s great stuff
-The intake has to be PERFECT. You might want to be using CADD software to do this sort of thing.
-Actually, CADD most of your robot first. That’s why we knew to use small omnis in front - so the intake has space.
-Consider what makes our robot work. You don’t have to copy it (if you can avoid it, don’t), but figure out what makes our robot tick. Think about the defense mechanisms, our strategy, and our design. Change what you think you can make better, and think about why that little fold out thing is there, for example. (How in the world are you going to make it let go of the stack without compromising your arm structure? It took us forever to figure it out.)
I’m oddly supportive of you copying our robot concept, but that’s because I really want to see how this pans out differently than ours. It wouldn’t be much fun if it didn’t work as well as you could get it to and variety at worlds is always appreciated this year.
Are you Japanese. 
Should I reveal the Golden Uzi Strategy:)?
Hallo, it’s 5am here and I haven’t slept yet, in hopes of “rolling over” and resetting my FUBARed sleeping schedule, so pardon my possible incoherence.
A few things…
No, I’m american. Golden uzi?
My “no lexan” comment, in retrospect, comes from uncertainty about working with it, and lack of tools to do so. Now I’ve become quite adept, and I find tin snips, a ruler and an electric drill to be good enough.
I generally believe it’s alright to use other’s ideas, as long as you:
I’ve posted ideas here that are being used by other people, and I ain’t even mad. I can only use my robot, so if another design inspired by me sneaks into Worlds, that’s pretty cool.
However, with Brave Little Toaster Mk. II, I’m having a problem with point 2. As much as i’ve spent nights mulling this design over, it’s clear murdomeek and TGN have spent much longer. It’s good.
There’s a list of things I’m changing (not going to tell you what :D) but the basic design ideals (rachets, tri-stack, exploding/splitting) are for the moment very similar. Any thoughts on improvement? How can I improve it?
keep in mind it’s 5 am and much of this is transient as the build progresses
Yep cuz it says u won awards in japan and u live in Tokyo i asked the question because I know japanese. Just curious. Also golden Uzi strategy is something really important for super stackers like 1107 b and urs. I made it.
I live in japan. 'nuff said.
Well, i have my own super stacker strategy that i totally haven’t thought of right now. It’s called the katanas with nunchaku on them strategy, which, though peer-reviewed doublie-blind study, has been proven to be at least 20% cooler than golden uzis.
Oh nice. Gambatte ne. Yep Golden Uzi strategy is not applicable for anyone in the world except 1107B Gordovakit.
what was your old design? and why not just build a super stacker separate from your old design, so if something goes wrong, you still have a working design. good luck with the build and i cant wait to see the improvements!!
