In this tutorial we go through the VEX IQ Challenge. Most of the challenges are related with manipulating objects. The most common object used in competitions are balls. That is why we take a look at a simple mechanism that can be used for throwing a ball.
- #522
- 07 May 2017
- 2:33
VEX Ball Thrower With Rubber Bands
Building instructions for a VEX IQ attachment for throwing balls with rubber bands.
English
A very common task on different VEX IQ Competition is to throw an object generally a ball. And a team came up with an attachment and it's a good idea to discuss this attachment, to highlight some of the problems with this attachment, to highlight how it works and then to discuss what are the different mechanisms incorporated in this attachment. How does it work?
It should hit the ball and the ball should move forward. Like this. Now, there are generally two ways to throw an object. First, you can use a rubber band or second, you can use motors with some levers. Now, you can come up with other ways but they are probably in some way incorporating motors or rubber bands. The problem with rubber bands or why it is more difficult is that you should have a reloading mechanism. While with the motors it is much more straight forward. For this attachment we have two levers and these two levers move and hit on the ball. The harder they hit, the faster and the further this ball will move. So, that's the idea of this attachment. A couple of things for this attachment. First, we must have the levers. Then we much have a system of gear wheels right here that increases the power. Then we must have another system of gear wheels right here that synchronizes the two levers. And we also have these two parts here and we use them for the size of the balls. So, if you have a larger object, probably you should place them further from each other. And these are some of the things that I would like to discuss for this attachment. Again, the lever, system of gears for increasing the speed of the levers, the system of gears for synchronizing both levers and the distance between these two parts for actually throwing different balls. It's an easy solution built by students and it shows some interesting ways to hit on the ball and to throw this ball.