FTC 7314 Engineering Notebook 2014-10-04

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Competition Season Meeting

Meeting Date Meeting Time Location Attendees
Saturday, October 4, 2014 2pm-5pm TCHS Brandywine Akhila, Laura, Brad, Nick, CJ, Morgan, Amal, Josh


Tasks Reflections
Prototype the Drum Shooter/Kicker Mechanism
  • Laura, Nick, and Akhila worked on prototyping the new shooter mechanism after concluding that the wheeled shooter they had been working on previously would not work efficiently. It consists of a kicker that shoots the ball into and up out of a tube. The tests proved that the mechanism would shoot both of the balls over five feet, which is what is needed for the ball to go into the center goal.
  • To start, they finished adapting the frame for the "whacker". They tied some surgical tubing to a U channel, which was used as our kicker. Then, they used a hose clamp to secure the other side of the surgical tubing.
  • To test it, the manually pulled back the lever, and shot a ball horizontally. Gary shot the first ball without warning anyone, so they were all too scared to put the ball in the next few times. The ball went really far, and pretty hard, so it was decided to try launching it vertically.
  • It successfully launched vertically, reaching higher than the center goal, perfect for the strategy! For a more realistic prototype, they got a longer pipe, so the height was not affected by the ball not going through the tube. It still reached the center goal.
  • With time running out, they decided to try and score a ball. They found a bent piece that would direct the ball into the tube. After many attempts with the big ball, which all failed due to inaccurate lineup, they decided to try a little ball. Finally finding the sweet spot, THE FIRST BALL WAS SCORED!!! They were all so excited! Sadly, it wasn't captured on video. (They eventually did get it on video, but it wasn't nearly as exciting)
  • Next meeting they will attempt to prototype the more elegant drum shooter solution. If that doesn't work, the team now has a working backup plan.
Developing with Intake
  • Amal, CJ, and Morgan developed the intake. CJ put together motor on the chassis and measured were to put it and still fit the large game piece(ball) .They also had to take apart the front of the chassis in order to make room for the intake and motor.


Recorded by: Date: Journal Editor: Akhila Date:









Action and idea Journal



Recorded by: Date: Journal Editor: Date: