Hey, our team have started for toss up, we are planning to use a scissor lift to fit under 12" and maybe even reach the hanging bar. But I am still curious about other lift systems, please post ideas they will be greatly appreciated. I under stand if you want to keep your plans secret. Thank you.
I think that quite a few things have been discussed in this thread. Scissor lift is definitely viable. Other teams have discussed 4 bar, which would probably be very hard to accomplish, 6 bar, and chain bar. You could also do a winch and pulley lift or the same type of lift with chain, but that’s pretty ill advised.
Pretty much any lift design you have seen in vex before will make an appearance again this year. Most people I have seen talking about it are saying 4 bar lifts or 6 bar lifts, I have seen a few teams say scissor or linear lifts, and I am sure there will be a team here and there that uses the catapult thing that vex pointed out. I personally think that a 2-bar lift is the way to go since it can be built quickly, easily, and inexpensively. It can also lift straight up and even past the towers. There are pros and cons to all of these lift designs, such as stability, cost, efficiency, difficulty of the build, etc… For example, the 2-bar can be rather unstable because it lifts straight up, but that can always be fixed by adding more weight or some wheelie bars!
We did a chain elevator lift last year and have decided not to do it again because of the time it takes to get right and because of the amount of tune up and maintenance that is required to keep it running well.
I am leaning to a 4 or 6 bar for this game. Although if you are using something different to hang then i would go for a chain bar lift.
It is worth noting that the robot is required to say in the hanging position after time is ended until the referees are done scoring. This requires a somewhat different plan of attack. This may influence some peoples lift designs. Just wanted to bring it to more peoples attention.
my team decided to go with a single, centered chain bar. it’s extremely light weight, meaning we can add on more systems like a hanging mech, large ball manipulator, and an intake without too much worry. However, we are a bit too deep into our season to redo the lift system, i would change a centered chain bar to a chain bar on each sides. However, this new chain bar would be around 13 inches long. That way, you could lift even more weight and still reach the column goal
Anyone else see a problem here?
I will point out that its JUNE. Change the lift system if you have a better way to do it. My robot can’t lift objects yet and I am still on track for completing my robot.
Well if you were referencing how everyone starts at the same time and thus “season” is the same for everyone, then yes :p. Especially since the season doesn’t end until next year. However, we have our own problems and adapt accordingly.
Or you could be referencing my poor writing 
Probably 75% of us haven’t even started building. Most people are in the “let’s take a break from robotics” period, or “what can we do for Toss Up”. I don’t start building for “real” until August. I do TONS of planning and CAD’ing though.
You guys have a HUGE head start on everyone. Keep that going.
Also, the chain bar works best on the outside of the intake. It’s not that hard to switch it. I would invest time into doing that if you think you will benefit better by it 
It’s nice to see another team getting their robot done early. I cannot speak for your team, but I am about done with my first build.
As far as lift systems I intend to use a combo bar linkage system which has a 4 bar that mounts to the chassis and a 3 bar and chain that attaches to the intake. It has a 46" vertical reach, and works great in CAD land, but in the real world it does this (attached) as it lifts.
What is that? We get withdrawals after about 3 day’s and end up doing things like hacking my wife’s Roomba. The entire drive from the world championships back to Texas was a brainstorming session followed by weeks of drawing, CADing, and pages of math. We skip a day here and there since Bryson is doing some online summer classes and have an occasional “Mental Health” day here and there. It’s nice to try and finish early so you can at least realize you had a bad idea and start over if nothing else.
You are never too far into a season to work on developing what you think might be a better idea, it’s better to miss a competition or two than to go the entire season with a robot that does not compete well. We skipped a competition to rebuild and won 2 world championship qualifying awards at the following 2 tournaments when we would not have even made it to the elimination rounds with the previous robot. It’s also a good idea to document your failures, judges seem to like a critical analysis of what you did wrong and learned from it. If you take what is on your website and put it in your engineering notebook you are well on your way to a design award!
We have almost certainly decided to go with a 6 bar, mainly because you can fit under 12", easily reach the cylinder goals (and also reach 40" for whatever you would need to reach that high. Just barely though).
For sack attack we had extensive drive problems, and hope to capitalize on the fact that the pieces are not very heavy, allowing us to invest lift motors onto the drivetrain. We have looked into creating a piston 6-bar though , similiar to 599D in gateway. That lift is brilliant, however we would only need 2 positions. Does anyone have any experience creating a piston lift, and could give us some tips?
Thanks
That assumes you don’t want to intake objects off of the rail.
0 12 24 would be better heights to lift to.