Mousetrap Vehicle C

[DarthBuilder]

Since the winding system from last year can’t be used this year, what are your ideas of a braking system using the same idea as last year?

[harsh108]

What is rule 3e about. Sorry about not knowing this as i am new...

[Unome]

What is rule 3e about. Sorry about not knowing this as i am new...

Rule 3.e in Mousetrap Vehicle is about the dowel. You might be referring to rule 3.e of Boomilever, which was worded strangely in such a way that one might be able to interpret the contact line position as "greater than 20 cm/15 cm" rather than "at 20 cm/15 cm".

[thewaffleguy]

is there a better way to do the braking system than making something to stop the wings of the wing nut from moving along the threaded rod? (sorry in advance if you find this question to be worded weirdly)

[Wabbit]

is there a better way to do the braking system than making something to stop the wings of the wing nut from moving along the threaded rod? (sorry in advance if you find this question to be worded weirdly)

Short answer is no. At least not anything that anyone has come up with as of now.

[antoine_ego]

is there a better way to do the braking system than making something to stop the wings of the wing nut from moving along the threaded rod? (sorry in advance if you find this question to be worded weirdly)

I don't think there is anything better than a wingnut, especially taking into account the weight penalty of other systems. Some people have done a winding up string, but this is less accurate than a wingnut. Alternatively, you could try some complicated gear mechanism, but it's probably not worth it. Wingnut breaking is accurate to about +-2cm, even lower if you use some tricks. It's probably easier to optimize other aspects of the vehicle before trying to fix that.

[windu34]

is there a better way to do the braking system than making something to stop the wings of the wing nut from moving along the threaded rod? (sorry in advance if you find this question to be worded weirdly)

I don't think there is anything better than a wingnut, especially taking into account the weight penalty of other systems. Some people have done a winding up string, but this is less accurate than a wingnut. Alternatively, you could try some complicated gear mechanism, but it's probably not worth it. Wingnut breaking is accurate to about +-2cm, even lower if you use some tricks. It's probably easier to optimize other aspects of the vehicle before trying to fix that.

100% agree with this. There are certainly ways to modify the wingnut system to increase precision, although its much more complex. I have used the string mechanism in scrambler and decent accuracy is very difficult to achieve.

[sciencecat42]

Can anyone explain what durometer means and what effect it has? It seems that the consensus is that 2-7/8” T40 Banebot wheels are the best, but what’s the difference between the 30A/40A/50A variants?

[PM2017]

Can anyone explain what durometer means and what effect it has? It seems that the consensus is that 2-7/8” T40 Banebot wheels are the best, but what’s the difference between the 30A/40A/50A variants?

Durometer is the hardness of the rubber. The harder it is, the more durable, but less grippy. Therefore, 30A is the grippiest (that's why most wheels you'll see are green.) but lest durable.

For this event though, it shouldn't be a problem. We use the same wheel (albeit larger) in our robotics team, and we subject it to much rougher and violent usage (FRC robots are intense...) than your mousetrap car should be undergoing.

[Otkrlj]

Hey, dumb question, we are having a problem having our car to go all 8 meters with power. Does anyone have an idea on how to make our car have power longer??