Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
- bernard
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Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
Last edited by bernard on August 17th, 2020, 12:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- Pebble
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
What's a counterweight ballista, it's mentioned in the wiki but I don't know what it is.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
Too be perfectly honest with you, I was wondering that myself. Ballistas by definition are torsion based machines. They store energy in the limbs of the "bow." I suppose a counterweight version would store energy into the limbs with a falling weight. I have judge StC several times over the years, and have never seen this design.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
There were designs for Scrambler that use the falling weight to stretch springs, and then used the springs to launch the car. Presumably you could construct a ballista along similar lines.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
That sounds like it's not so much powered by the weight as it is the springs, but if this was allowed would it work by theoretically using the weight to pull something like a slingshot backwards (or a torsion powered catapult like a ballista or onager), and then somehow release it when it reaches a certain depth so that the arms spring forward and fires the projectile. Right?knightmoves wrote: ↑May 12th, 2021, 5:02 am There were designs for Scrambler that use the falling weight to stretch springs, and then used the springs to launch the car. Presumably you could construct a ballista along similar lines.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
Many years ago, I saw a few designs like this when this was an event (I want to say 2006 season). The issues teams that did this had was demonstrating that there was absolutely no energy stored in the elastic before the weight fell, and that the release mechanism also contributed no energy to the launch. Because these devices looked so much different from everyone elses, they also appeared to be highly scrutinized.Pebble wrote: ↑May 19th, 2021, 8:57 amThat sounds like it's not so much powered by the weight as it is the springs, but if this was allowed would it work by theoretically using the weight to pull something like a slingshot backwards (or a torsion powered catapult like a ballista or onager), and then somehow release it when it reaches a certain depth so that the arms spring forward and fires the projectile. Right?knightmoves wrote: ↑May 12th, 2021, 5:02 am There were designs for Scrambler that use the falling weight to stretch springs, and then used the springs to launch the car. Presumably you could construct a ballista along similar lines.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
For the scrambler design, the springs have to begin unstretched (and teams were expected to show that). All the energy comes from the falling weight, but the springs allow that energy to be transferred to the vehicle in a short snap, rather than spread over the time it takes the weight to fall.Pebble wrote: ↑May 19th, 2021, 8:57 amThat sounds like it's not so much powered by the weight as it is the springs, but if this was allowed would it work by theoretically using the weight to pull something like a slingshot backwards (or a torsion powered catapult like a ballista or onager), and then somehow release it when it reaches a certain depth so that the arms spring forward and fires the projectile. Right?knightmoves wrote: ↑May 12th, 2021, 5:02 am There were designs for Scrambler that use the falling weight to stretch springs, and then used the springs to launch the car. Presumably you could construct a ballista along similar lines.
And yes, I think you have it right. The way the scrambler designs worked was to use the falling weight to stretch the springs, and then to have the weight hit a trigger to release the vehicle.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
This sounds interesting. Do you know what their release mechanism looked like or how it worked?
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
From memory, a trigger release as used in archery was quite popular. And the falling weight would pull a cord attached to the spring through some kind of ratchet mechanism.
Last edited by knightmoves on May 19th, 2021, 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Storm the Castle B [TRIAL]
For this to work, I'm assuming that the weight is not directly attached to something like a string that connects it to the "sling" part. In my mind, I'm kind of thinking of it like a compound bow's cam except that the string attached to the "sling" has the archery device which is set off somehow when it reaches a certain point or if the weight hits something. I know this design is flawed, but did the actual thing relate to my guess in any way?knightmoves wrote: ↑May 19th, 2021, 12:08 pmFrom memory, a trigger release as used in archery was quite popular. And the falling weight would pull a cord attached to the spring through some kind of ratchet mechanism.
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