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Finding some pistons online is a good idea at a store other than bimba (takes too long to ship). We need to test out some other bore sizes as I have yet to see a team successful with pistons as big as ours.

Jay took the drawings that RJ had made and put them into google drawing. He could not find the drawing for the catapult unfortunately and did not create that. Neil and Mike talked about the various issues with the pneumatic setup and possible techniques we could employ to launch the ball more effectively. See my email for such a technique. We decided that two things could be easily done to improve the shooter: we wanted to try having the ball roll off the end of the arm instead of being pushed straight so the maximum angle of the arm would be more like 90 degrees. This would allow us to position the piston closer to the fulcrum and increase the arm speed. We also realized that putting the arm flat or down a little bit would allow the ball to travel on the arm longer and roll off more effectively so I changed increased the height of the fulcrum to allow the pistons to maintain an upward angle so as to be able to push the arm. The problem is that the mounding brackets add 1" to both mounting points, reducing the angle that the piston can be positioned at.

There are a ton of approaches to the use of pistons

Screw in remaining screws and add the second piston to match the first. Test it. It may require the bar to be lifted slightly to get it going if the pistons are not pushing the board up. If this is the case, try to give the pistons a better angle. Pay careful attention to the hinges and the wood on the prototype as 300lbs of contained force when the pistons are unable to push might destroy some things.

we need to get this prototyping done as soon as possible