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Discussion for Mousetrap Vehicle C.

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2009 Thread

According to http://www.aug.edu/gaso/6-12.html only 1 mousetrap will be used for Out and Back. That is a pretty big change from the trial event rules from nationals.

It's important to understand that trial event rules on the national website usually reflect the event as it was run in the past, not how it will be run in the future.

You should contact the organizers of any tournament you will compete in to find out what rules they will be using (this is somewhat true of all events). Many tournaments change the rules to accommodate local thinking and/or facilities

Yep, it's probably best to just wait for the official rules to come out before making any hasty conclusions.

It is one or two mousetraps. Triggering the second trap should be easy, but how do you prevent the second mechanism from interfering with forward progress on the way out? The only thing I can think of that seems simple enough to be reliable is a ratchet and pawl, allowing the axle to spin freely inside the wheel in one direction only. Does anyone have any other ideas?

Flavorflav wrote:It is one or two mousetraps. Triggering the second trap should be easy, but how do you prevent the second mechanism from interfering with forward progress on the way out? The only thing I can think of that seems simple enough to be reliable is a ratchet and pawl, allowing the axle to spin freely inside the wheel in one direction only. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I assume you are referring to the short event description for this event when you say one or two mousetraps. Which makes me wonder why you would ever use 1 when you could use two, unless there is a bonus of some kind. As far as the 2nd trap, I like the ratchet and pawl idea too, the only other ideas I have would be to have it start unwound and wind around the axle on the way out, then pull tight which triggers the trap. But it would take a lot of fine tuning and I have admittedly never tryed it. The other possibility would be to hook both traps to one axle and pull that axle out then switch the string and direction and bring it back in on that axle.

i find the easiest way to do it is with both mousetraps pulling on both legs of the trip
it is the easiest to design and the easiest to get to work right all it involves is a cool bit of winding

Paradox21 wrote:

Flavorflav wrote:It is one or two mousetraps. Triggering the second trap should be easy, but how do you prevent the second mechanism from interfering with forward progress on the way out? The only thing I can think of that seems simple enough to be reliable is a ratchet and pawl, allowing the axle to spin freely inside the wheel in one direction only. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I assume you are referring to the short event description for this event when you say one or two mousetraps. Which makes me wonder why you would ever use 1 when you could use two, unless there is a bonus of some kind. As far as the 2nd trap, I like the ratchet and pawl idea too, the only other ideas I have would be to have it start unwound and wind around the axle on the way out, then pull tight which triggers the trap. But it would take a lot of fine tuning and I have admittedly never tryed it. The other possibility would be to hook both traps to one axle and pull that axle out then switch the string and direction and bring it back in on that axle.

You assume incorrectly. The official rules state "one or two unmodified snap mousetraps." Are you thinking of having the string move from an idler spool to the axle as the car travels out? It seems dangerous to just have it flopping around loose.

robotman09 wrote:i find the easiest way to do it is with both mousetraps pulling on both legs of the trip
it is the easiest to design and the easiest to get to work right all it involves is a cool bit of winding

Are you planning to wrap it in one direction on the inside, then reverse the wrap for the second half of the wind? Have you tried this, and does it work?

Flavorflav wrote:

robotman09 wrote:i find the easiest way to do it is with both mousetraps pulling on both legs of the trip
it is the easiest to design and the easiest to get to work right all it involves is a cool bit of winding

Are you planning to wrap it in one direction on the inside, then reverse the wrap for the second half of the wind? Have you tried this, and does it work?

yep i have tried it it works great you just need to have a pin so that i will reverse you wrap it the number you think you need to come back first than you hook it around the pin and continue wrapping

Hmmm, that sounds a lot simpler, and simpler is almost always better. We'll give it a try, thanks.