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Subject: 
Re: Ping-Pong Ball Shooter
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Thu, 13 Jan 2000 18:33:02 GMT
Original-From: 
The WordMeister <dwilcox@%antispam%wordsmithdigital.com>
Viewed: 
753 times
  
I want to thank the list for such excellent suggestions. Here's a progress
report:

I used all 4 of the "big" wheels (tires and hubs) that come with the RIS,
dual-mounted (like the rear wheels on a tractor-trailer) and opposite each
other. The gap between the two sets of wheels was about 1/4" narrower than
the diameter of the ping-pong ball.

Surprisingly, this didn't work very well at all. With the wheels at rest,
the ball would not go through easily, but with the wheels spinning rapidly,
it would go through very easily, but not accelerate much. (Can anyone
explain this? It's as if while in motion the wheel diameters are decreasing,
which to me seems unlikely, as I would expect the diameter of the rubber
tires to increase slightly due to inertia. Maybe it is just that it is
grabbing the ball and moving it through so quickly that the ball isn't
accelerating well.)

I realized this morning that I should try using two single wheels (one on
each side) to accelerate the ball, and have a consistent track that runs
right under the accelerators.

I also played with modifications to my "spinning bat" device. It turned out
by having an unpaired "club" (a radial angle piece instead of two angle
beams that form an approximate diameter) hit the ball the distance was
dramatically improved, although balancing this single club is trickier than
I would have imagined.

I'll keep you all updated. Thanks again for the suggestions.

--Doug Wilcox

WordSmith Digital Document Services
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Rockland, MA 02370

781-871-6162
fax 781-871-6264
http://www.wordsmithdigital.com
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