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What confuses me in the rules is when it states that the dowel must touch the 3 oz. cup. Does this mean be reasonably close or does it have to make contact with the cup. I have a 3d printed piece to guide the cup and hold the dowel. Depending on cup size the dowel should be a few millimeters away from the cup. Thanks for the clarification.
If anyone has went to competition already if you could tell me the standard at the comp that would be great.

T&J101 wrote:What confuses me in the rules is when it states that the dowel must touch the 3 oz. cup. Does this mean be reasonably close or does it have to make contact with the cup. I have a 3d printed piece to guide the cup and hold the dowel. Depending on cup size the dowel should be a few millimeters away from the cup. Thanks for the clarification.
If anyone has went to competition already if you could tell me the standard at the comp that would be great.

"Touch" implies physical contact. I would recommend printing your holder in seperate peices so you can adjust the arms of the holder to fit the ES' Cup and have the cup touch the dowel at the start. I'm doing something similar, except I'm using dowels screwed to the front of the car, with the vertical dowel between them. I hope this helps.

Things2do wrote:

T&J101 wrote:What confuses me in the rules is when it states that the dowel must touch the 3 oz. cup. Does this mean be reasonably close or does it have to make contact with the cup. I have a 3d printed piece to guide the cup and hold the dowel. Depending on cup size the dowel should be a few millimeters away from the cup. Thanks for the clarification.
If anyone has went to competition already if you could tell me the standard at the comp that would be great.

"Touch" implies physical contact. I would recommend printing your holder in seperate peices so you can adjust the arms of the holder to fit the ES' Cup and have the cup touch the dowel at the start. I'm doing something similar, except I'm using dowels screwed to the front of the car, with the vertical dowel between them. I hope this helps.

Thanks I'll try that. But due to the variation of the cup sizes, it will be nearly impossible to design a perfect holder.

Would taking off the locking pin on one of the mousetraps be considered illegal? And what type of string is recommended? Sorry for the barrage of questions.

T&J101 wrote:Would taking off the locking pin on one of the mousetraps be considered illegal? And what type of string is recommended? Sorry for the barrage of questions.

" Mousetraps must retain all of their original parts and structural integrity. Altering the structural integrity of the mousetrap is prohibited, including welding, bending, and cutting. Items may be added to each mousetrap through methods including, but not limited to: soldering, taping, tying, gluing, and clamping. Added items cannot increase the potential energy of the unmodified mousetrap" So yes

As for string, I'm not sure what the exact name of the type I use is, but basically choose a string that does not slip/is slippery. So when you tie a knot, the string doesn't try to untie itself. Fishing line is ok, but you have to make sure the knot you tie is extremely tight otherwise the knot will come apart since fishing line is very smooth.

So I just got back from my first competition, some important notes:

• • My car fits within the 40cm² box perpendicularly, but I measured it diagonally because i was cutting it close. The ES (who is the ES of the national competition) informed me that while this was currently accaptable, there verry likely will be an FAQ or rule clarification coming out soon that would make this impossible.
  
  • A rack and pinion was verry successful, and I came in second despite my alignment screw inexplicably coming loose, and the car veering 5cm. It simplifies the setup massively because you do not need to acomidate for initial angle.
  
  • Even after a year, many teams are still struggling to get a handle on this event. The 8m seems to have thrown a wrench in progress.
  
  • The new mousetrap specifications seem to have eliminated anything wild in terms of speed. Nothing was faster than 9-10 seconds

I’ve been using a fairly naive alignment mechanism of laying down a square and eyballing from that. Has anyone had sucess with a simple gun sight style alignment? Or is a string better? Not quite sure how or what to implement.

cuber wrote:So I just got back from my first competition, some important notes:

• • My car fits within the 40cm² box perpendicularly, but I measured it diagonally because i was cutting it close. The ES (who is the ES of the national competition) informed me that while this was currently accaptable, there verry likely will be an FAQ or rule clarification coming out soon that would make this impossible.
  
  • A rack and pinion was verry successful, and I came in second despite my alignment screw inexplicably coming loose, and the car veering 5cm. It simplifies the setup massively because you do not need to acomidate for initial angle.
  
  • Even after a year, many teams are still struggling to get a handle on this event. The 8m seems to have thrown a wrench in progress.
  
  • The new mousetrap specifications seem to have eliminated anything wild in terms of speed. Nothing was faster than 9-10 seconds

I’ve been using a fairly naive alignment mechanism of laying down a square and eyballing from that. Has anyone had sucess with a simple gun sight style alignment? Or is a string better? Not quite sure how or what to implement.

Thank you for sharing! If they were to release a rule clarification on putting the device diagonally, a week before the competition what would be the best way to fix this problem?

terence.tan wrote:

cuber wrote:So I just got back from my first competition, some important notes:

• • My car fits within the 40cm² box perpendicularly, but I measured it diagonally because i was cutting it close. The ES (who is the ES of the national competition) informed me that while this was currently accaptable, there verry likely will be an FAQ or rule clarification coming out soon that would make this impossible.
  
  • A rack and pinion was verry successful, and I came in second despite my alignment screw inexplicably coming loose, and the car veering 5cm. It simplifies the setup massively because you do not need to acomidate for initial angle.
  
  • Even after a year, many teams are still struggling to get a handle on this event. The 8m seems to have thrown a wrench in progress.
  
  • The new mousetrap specifications seem to have eliminated anything wild in terms of speed. Nothing was faster than 9-10 seconds

I’ve been using a fairly naive alignment mechanism of laying down a square and eyballing from that. Has anyone had sucess with a simple gun sight style alignment? Or is a string better? Not quite sure how or what to implement.

Thank you for sharing! If they were to release a rule clarification on putting the device diagonally, a week before the competition what would be the best way to fix this problem?

If you mean that the wheelbase would be too big if you don't measure diagonally, wouldn't the only way to fix that be to either move the axles closer together or use smaller wheels?

Also, @ cuber, do you mean that your car was 5cm off the VTP and you got second? How close was the cup to the CTP?

dragonfruit35 wrote:

terence.tan wrote:

cuber wrote:So I just got back from my first competition, some important notes:

• • My car fits within the 40cm² box perpendicularly, but I measured it diagonally because i was cutting it close. The ES (who is the ES of the national competition) informed me that while this was currently accaptable, there verry likely will be an FAQ or rule clarification coming out soon that would make this impossible.
  
  • A rack and pinion was verry successful, and I came in second despite my alignment screw inexplicably coming loose, and the car veering 5cm. It simplifies the setup massively because you do not need to acomidate for initial angle.
  
  • Even after a year, many teams are still struggling to get a handle on this event. The 8m seems to have thrown a wrench in progress.
  
  • The new mousetrap specifications seem to have eliminated anything wild in terms of speed. Nothing was faster than 9-10 seconds

I’ve been using a fairly naive alignment mechanism of laying down a square and eyballing from that. Has anyone had sucess with a simple gun sight style alignment? Or is a string better? Not quite sure how or what to implement.

Thank you for sharing! If they were to release a rule clarification on putting the device diagonally, a week before the competition what would be the best way to fix this problem?

If you mean that the wheelbase would be too big if you don't measure diagonally, wouldn't the only way to fix that be to either move the axles closer together or use smaller wheels?

Also, @ cuber, do you mean that your car was 5cm off the VTP and you got second? How close was the cup to the CTP?

yes, is there a more reliable option than moving the axles closer together

cuber wrote: • A rack and pinion was verry successful, and I came in second despite my alignment screw inexplicably coming loose, and the car veering 5cm. It simplifies the setup massively because you do not need to acomidate for initial angle.

Can someone explain this for me please?