The Best of 2020

This is a collection of pictures and videos of devices that placed in the top ten at the 2020 National Tournament at North Carolina State University.

The Best of Nationals pages highlight the best devices for building events from recent national tournaments. All photos and videos of devices on these pages are submitted by users. If possible, when submitting please include a description about your device.

With the National Tournament cancelled, we are allowing any users to submit their own devices to this page because everyone benefits when we share.

Detector Building (Division C)

Detector Building - MoMoney

Detector Building Ciruit - MoMoney

In this Detector, I used a type of circuit that I thought might help potentially bring up the analog signal scaling, to widen the ADC readings. I used an Op-Amp (with a consistent 9 volt input), which helps to scale up the Analog readings which in the long term helps get a more specific temperature. In the case shown in the circuit I scaled up the circuit by 3 times the original range, which helped make the detector 3 times as accurate as it was before. However, it was kept in mind that an Op-Amp must be specifically wired for the type of cirucit in mind, since many design issues were and can be made.

Gravity Vehicle (Division C)

Gravity Vehicle - MTV<=>Operator

School: Townsend Harris High School
Best score in practice: 3.5
Average score in practice: 14
Thanks to my partner moonstar1222

Gravity Vehicle - User:CPScienceDude

This was my vehicle for Gravity Vehicle for the 2020 season. For how messed up it looks, it performed really well. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me!

School: Crown Point High School
Best score in practice: 3
Average score in practice: 10

Ping Pong Parachute (Division C)

Ping Pong Parachute - User:Sciolyperson1 and User:Builderguy135

Launch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nieiu8bumss&feature=youtu.be

Rocket: Standard light tube design. Curved hemisphere cap; ours was 3D printed. This is important, as you want to make sure the rocket does not rip the parachute. Fins don’t matter. Keep it light, we used weak paper fins. The parachute should be draped directly over the rocket. Before launch, pat down the sides of the parachute gently; too much, and the parachute won’t deploy optimally; too little, the parachute will create too much draft.

Rocket Head: An STL file can be found here. This head must be smoothed with sandpaper after printing. Insert this at the head of the rocket tube, where the center of the parachute is placed.

Parachute: Use a superultrafilm parachute. Superultrafilm is a type of mylar that can be bought here (Indoor Specialties) or here (FAI Model Supply); it’s incredibly light (much lighter than normal mylar). You can combine three sheets together side by side by side by laying out a long strip of material, covering all but a thin edge of the material (~1cm), spraying it with a VERY thin layer of spray glue (I use 3M’s Super 77. Spray 2 feet away from material, one pass is enough. Make sure there are no holes). Carefully layer the second sheet of film onto the edge of the first sheet, and third into the second. Each sheet is 12.4 inches wide, for a total of an 36 inch diameter. Note that the parachute rips easily. Let this film dry overnight. Then, cut the film into a circle as wide as possible. Use 16 strings (we use the lightest sewing thread we could find, go to the dollar store), equally spaced around the edge of the parachute. At this point, every milligram should be saved.

Results: This should, optimally, achieve over 2 sec/ft. At our best, we achieved a 40 second single flight in a ~20ft gym; importantly, there was no updraft. With this design, we won the 2022 MIT [~64.5 seconds total, 35 PSI maximum] and 2020/2022 Princeton Invitationals. Other results include 1st at 2020 NJ States [30+ second single flight, 2020 rules]. For adjusted results based on the national event modifications’ multiplier table, the parachute can achieve ~55+ seconds consistently and 60 seconds on good runs. This can be compared to a time of 40-45 that won div B SONI, 40-45 that won div C SONI, and a 42-48 that won div C BirdSO Satellite.