Slingfest Crew Logistics

Meet saturday afternoon (29th) to do final tweaks and pack everything onto liftgate truck
Meet sunday at 8:30am at DMS to leave for Plano

Will need more straps, put rear part on wood blocks so it is not sitting on pneumatic tires during transport, strap down arm. For test transport only had a couple straps and went very slow, but for event will need to take the tollway.

Does anyone want to be responsible for running the mini trebuchet during the competition? Will need a truck a transport it as I’m not sure if would fit in truck with main trebuchet. Would also need to pickup oranges or grapefruit or apples for ammo

Also I picked up 8 mini watermelons (fairly spherical, ~7" diameter, 6.5 - 7.5 pounds) for ammo.

Can anyone think of special things we should bring?

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Tools. Just in case.

Even more important.

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@Draco Can Digital Media get involved doing “documentary” of this event? Or at least geting some good footage. Some high speed footage would be great.

Anyone have a small cart with pneumatic tires we could borrow for the weekend? Something like

So what kind of straps? I have several styles & sizes.

Just more ~1000 pound ratcheting tie down straps, I picked up another pack of 4 earlier today

Manhandling the trebuchet to and from the firing line may prove challenging.

We (:dms:slight_smile: don’t own a high-speed camera. 1080p60 is the best the RX-10 does and in still mode it only goes to 1/3200 which seems fast until you are trying to capture a pumpkin that just got chunked. The City of Plano captured some OK footage last year but it is pretty tough to do a really good job of capturing the launch without something fairly specialized. And technically the RX-10 can not leave :dms:

Shoulda putta drawbar on the 'Spacekart…

Traction could be a problem.

2-300 nine-inch nails through each tire outta fix that.
(It works for the ice racers…)

I am making arrangements to borrow my brother’s fast Casio camera, the one which was known years ago for being able to do 1000 fps or something. I pick it up Thursday.

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That’s great! There were at least three, the newest is the EX-ZR1000, they record either 224x56 or 224x64 pixels at 1000fps but they are fun to play with. Call Pete Delkus and tell him to get rid of the clouds for Sunday! It takes a TON of light!

Here is a sample of the video from one (ZR-200) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mISQEgxpPqw

If we had a regular use for a high-speed camera, these have been well received for the relatively low cost

http://theslowmotioncameracompany.com/, they had a Kickstarter for their first camera back in 2014

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And here is the “slow motion” reel from “Slingfest” 2012 (I don’t remember if it was really called that before last year)

Love the “thrill of victory” combined with “agony of defeat” footage.

My phone can take 240fps, it would be good to have someone taking video from side so we can review exact release point and angle on each launch before the next attempt.

Did you adjust the release pin? I’m concerned about the release angle. It’s a little hard for me to discern from the mostly dark video.

Release pin was set for maximum elevation for all test shots; angle was consistently high regardless.