Mousetrap Vehicle C

[terence.tan]

I miss EV and the nice smooth floors we ran on: http://www.lmsal.com/pub/markn/EV-NorCa ... onship.mov

Very nice run! What was up with those cans though, they looked giant? I don't understand why some ES decide to be tricky and try to cross people up. Just use a couple cans of corn.

At the Golden Gate Invitational we encountered empty cans. One of the Troy teams hit a can but their car ended up only 3 cm from the target point. At the NorCal State Championship the cans contained liquid so if you hit one your car was toast.

At NY State the cans were 10lbs each

[biz11]

Has anyone tried wrapping string around a threaded axle? If so, does it work or is there anything you need to do to make it work well?

[antoine_ego]

Has anyone tried wrapping string around a threaded axle? If so, does it work or is there anything you need to do to make it work well?

It works perfectly fine in my experience. If you're really concerned about the threads affecting anything, just put a few layers of tape around it.

[mnoga]

Has anyone tried wrapping string around a threaded axle? If so, does it work or is there anything you need to do to make it work well?

This was no issue for us if we wrapped the string with no overlap. Wrapping with overlap inconsistently might prevent you from clearing the CTL on a consistent basis. The threaded rod mainly controls where you stop. Wheel balance and wheel wobble will have very minor effects on the stopping accuracy, but it is enough to make or break you (pun intended) in the National Competition.

Here's a picture: http://www.lmsal.com/pub/markn/mtv.jpg

[Rezalis]

I miss EV and the nice smooth floors we ran on: http://www.lmsal.com/pub/markn/EV-NorCa ... onship.mov

Very nice run! What was up with those cans though, they looked giant? I don't understand why some ES decide to be tricky and try to cross people up. Just use a couple cans of corn.

At the Golden Gate Invitational we encountered empty cans. One of the Troy teams hit a can but their car ended up only 3 cm from the target point. At the NorCal State Championship the cans contained liquid so if you hit one your car was toast.

One of my strategies last year was to actually knock the cans away. My vehicle had an arduio due, a 9-axis gyro, and a quadrature encoder. I managaed to set both cans 2 centimeters apart and whack them out of the way with my triangular plow. I averaged around -19 as my score, consistently getting within 3cm of the target regardless of the mass of the cans. The vehicle followed a path with target points. If our team had made it to nationals, I would have experimented with a variable curve for the vehicle to travel on. It was so much more fun than moustrap vehicle. Mouse just isn't my thing.

[mnoga]

Very nice run! What was up with those cans though, they looked giant? I don't understand why some ES decide to be tricky and try to cross people up. Just use a couple cans of corn.

At the Golden Gate Invitational we encountered empty cans. One of the Troy teams hit a can but their car ended up only 3 cm from the target point. At the NorCal State Championship the cans contained liquid so if you hit one your car was toast.

One of my strategies last year was to actually knock the cans away. My vehicle had an arduio due, a 9-axis gyro, and a quadrature encoder. I managaed to set both cans 2 centimeters apart and whack them out of the way with my triangular plow. I averaged around -19 as my score, consistently getting within 3cm of the target regardless of the mass of the cans. The vehicle followed a path with target points. If our team had made it to nationals, I would have experimented with a variable curve for the vehicle to travel on. It was so much more fun than moustrap vehicle. Mouse just isn't my thing.

That's an interesting strategy, and probably one that the designers of the event didn't anticipate. I guess you must have designed to a certain weight threshold on the cans otherwise you would have failed to push them aside. How much did your vehicle weigh?

[bernard]

At the Golden Gate Invitational we encountered empty cans. One of the Troy teams hit a can but their car ended up only 3 cm from the target point. At the NorCal State Championship the cans contained liquid so if you hit one your car was toast.

One of my strategies last year was to actually knock the cans away. My vehicle had an arduio due, a 9-axis gyro, and a quadrature encoder. I managaed to set both cans 2 centimeters apart and whack them out of the way with my triangular plow. I averaged around -19 as my score, consistently getting within 3cm of the target regardless of the mass of the cans. The vehicle followed a path with target points. If our team had made it to nationals, I would have experimented with a variable curve for the vehicle to travel on. It was so much more fun than moustrap vehicle. Mouse just isn't my thing.

That's an interesting strategy, and probably one that the designers of the event didn't anticipate. I guess you must have designed to a certain weight threshold on the cans otherwise you would have failed to push them aside. How much did your vehicle weigh?

The cans were weighted at nationals last year. At least one team tried to use their vehicle to push the cans out of the way.

[windu34]

I don't understand why some ES decide to be tricky and try to cross people up

Hmm I wonder too . The cans at nationals where weighted, but only with like 100-200 grams iirc and did not significantly affect your accuracy if you bumped into them. The national champion (Mira Loma) actually did hit the can gently, but their device had enough inertia to not be significantly affected by it.

I experimented with smashing through the cans, but the loss in speed and accuracy was too great for me to stick with it in the end. I assumed the most extreme size of cans and filled the with concrete. Accuracy loss was up to 10cm and 4-5 cm on average.

[Rezalis]

At the Golden Gate Invitational we encountered empty cans. One of the Troy teams hit a can but their car ended up only 3 cm from the target point. At the NorCal State Championship the cans contained liquid so if you hit one your car was toast.

One of my strategies last year was to actually knock the cans away. My vehicle had an arduio due, a 9-axis gyro, and a quadrature encoder. I managaed to set both cans 2 centimeters apart and whack them out of the way with my triangular plow. I averaged around -19 as my score, consistently getting within 3cm of the target regardless of the mass of the cans. The vehicle followed a path with target points. If our team had made it to nationals, I would have experimented with a variable curve for the vehicle to travel on. It was so much more fun than moustrap vehicle. Mouse just isn't my thing.

That's an interesting strategy, and probably one that the designers of the event didn't anticipate. I guess you must have designed to a certain weight threshold on the cans otherwise you would have failed to push them aside. How much did your vehicle weigh?

My vehicle was massive. (At least 2 kilograms) It had a powerful brushless drive system so it could still accelerate and brake very well. I relied on the motor's electrical braking and crept up to the target point. I was easily able to knock large soup/bean cans out of the way. (I dented many while testing)

[PM2017]

I love how this has devolved (or evolved depending on your point of view) into a discussion of EV.