Scrambler C

[syo_astro]

I want to say the coordinator (yes, his name was Brother Nigel, or BroNi) told me that one major thing was some teams were having clips fall to the ground kinda or something, and he maybe would've had to count that as the mass depending on how it influenced the device. All I did was take a dowel with a hook in it, my mass rested on that, and I would pull out the dowel with the pencil. Didn't get any complaints, and I basically just held the dowel with the hook by the pencil, so it didn't even fall on the ground. Sounds pretty similar, so I would hope it's legal!

I believe my time at states was around 3.5 s for a distance of 9.7 m. Also, I think they said my distance was around 40 cm? I can't be sure on that, but that got me 15th. It had a diagonal to it, which is why I didn't get it closer :/.

[Smithy0013]

I believe my time at states was around 3.5 s for a distance of 9.7 m.

I thought time was always measured as to get from .2 to 8.2 meters so time was independent of the set distance?

[Stingray355]

The distance is always the same this year for the timing, .2 to 8.2m as you stated. The distance to the target is selected by the ES after all devices are impounded.

We used a hinged trap door with a pin to secure it in the ready position and simply tied a piece of line to it and secured the other end to the launcher so it cannot fall off and also so that we don't lose it in transit and have to scramble, no pun intended, to find a replacement at a competition. As the rules/FAQs are now it might also keep you from having an ES decide that you need to be tiered because it fell to the floor if you dropped it after launch. I am not saying that would happen but it is better to not have to worry about how they might interpret the rules.

[Smithy0013]

So my Car is coming in at 490 grams. Hows that compare? Also what size threaded rod are other people using? Im using 1/4 28. Tried 8-32 but it was too flimsy

[iwonder]

Mines a little lighter with an egg, but not by much. I use a 3-D printed threaded axle (it's got threads and some portions that aren't threaded) and 3/8-16 threads, it calls it close as far as thread pitch and length of the axle. (When I go the full distance the stop nut starts the run at the very end of the threads.

[nxtscholar]

mine is 502 grams.

And I'm using 5/16 aluminum threaded rods. Bleh. In retrospect, I should have used a 1/4 threaded rod. I only used 5/16 because that was the inner diameter of my ball bearings that I happened to have.

[syo_astro]

I believe my time at states was around 3.5 s for a distance of 9.7 m.

I thought time was always measured as to get from .2 to 8.2 meters so time was independent of the set distance?

It is, I just worded it out of order since I didn't think it was a big deal . Congrats for reading the rules XD? My car actually was relatively heavy, but I never exactly massed it.

Edit: Forgot to say. Likely it was heavier than that I guess? I didn't focus much on the mass as I could've, but it didn't seem to be such a big deal. I recall another measurement was 6 seconds to go down 12 m (so likely it was gonna be 4 give or take in any case, our floors were sort of bad), so I think it was fine...also sorry I can't say about the threads, my breaks didn't use one (though, I guess in retrospect I may as well have). Tbh, I think the only real issue was I had a few days of REALLY solid testing. A bit more would've been nice to really get down the distance score.

[Smithy0013]

If you don't mind sharing, what kind of break did you use then? Just curious

[syo_astro]

If you don't mind sharing, what kind of break did you use then? Just curious

Suffice it to say it used gears...it was interesting and wasn't all that bad with breaking, but I think at the end of the day wingnuts work fine.

[Smithy0013]

anyone having luck with spring launchers?