Yesterday I tested the original 6V power adapter after the shuttles got stuck again and voila, no more issues. So my modification was the primary reason for the shuttles getting stuck.
I was not inspired by the product in the end. I am impatiently waiting for the baddy V3. I think on the long run it is a better investment.
Do you guys have any infos about baddy V3? Baddy's Facebooks seems to be dead since nearly a year. How does the order process work and how is the experience/performance of previous versions? Is baddy something for a club enviroment or should I invest more into a Siboasi? @LenaicM did you register and know more?
I am still waiting for an update, I tried to chat online using the dialogue box of the Baddy's website, never got an answer. Both machines are not comparable, the Siboasi has a much higher shuttle capacity and launching speed. It is more capable. The baddy is amazing for one player to practice on his/her own or a small club environment.
I wrote them on facebook a message but also never got an answer. I know that both machines are not compareable, but buying 2 baddy to discover that it is not made to withstand to use it 1-2 douzen of hours per month without maintenance in a long run would turn it into a bad buy. Are here any people who used it excessive to report? I plan to use them in junior training as a support for feeding shuttles (too many kids, too less feeder). Also to have a precise feeding for beginners to learn to be prepared for a shuttle, move and try to hit and to design some complex training drills for the seniors.
It's a shame because this could have gone somewhere. The project looks dead right now. Also I spent time looking for the printing parts for v2 so I could build it and they didn't upload them properly so looks disorganised. I don't know why they didn't just stop at v2 and order more electronics and print more parts, what's the point of trying to improve if you kill the project. They had a working low cost feeder already. Now you can't trust that even if v3 comes along that the thing is even going to get delivered working. It's very annoying that they make this big song and dance over v3 and go dead leaving people who have been waiting for it in limbo, and at the same time kill off v2 when all they have to do is upload the laser cut diagrams properly. Even if I order the v2 maker I have no idea what will happen because whoever is behind this seems not to care at all.
I don't know, I could have bought 4 of those things for half the price of a baddy and been using them for a couple of months already. I could have worked out how to mod them for remote operation in sync as well and written software to do it. Now it would have to be a couple of months to get these from China as they are not in the UK anymore, and more expensive too. This is what's annoyed me about baddy. We could be waiting a long time.
I've ordered this cheapo one and am going to open it up when it gets here to see if I can stick a microprocessor in to control it and up the power of the motors. From the looks of things the feeding mechanism is pretty smart, smarter than baddy in fact, and it generates a remarkable amount of power from the current it's drawing, the baddy uses significantly more current and doesn't generate much more power so I'm interested to see how they've achieved this using cheap components and low voltage. I can build a baddy on my own if I want but I'll see if I can come up with a mod for this first, I'm still hoping baddy will pick up again though I can see why they're having problems and I'd bet it's not going forwards. The latest Siboasi B2000 looks pretty cheap depending on import cost if you're a club now though. Wouldn't want to lug it around as an individual which is why I'd rather make my own. I've also no idea how good the warranty is for it if anything goes wrong but they seem pretty on the ball as a company making this type of technology. I think we're at a bit of a tipping point for feeder technology, if they could engineer that cheapo one I'd bet someone is coming up with a decent individual one for around £200 or so, which is why Siboasi is starting to lower their costs.
It took a while to get here. I've opened it up and it runs off 3 brushed motors, 6v 2a. Lightweight at about 1.2kg without batteries. Very simple design but works. All I need is to tripod mount and to put an arduino in to control it, I may replace the motors later. Bang for buck it's amazing. https://ibb.co/XLpXVLv Baddy is dead.
It is an interesting device. Shame that it didn't pan out for the designer as we can tell quite a bit of thought and time went into this.
I'm not sure about this, the issue with the cheapo are the wheels. I've got the same model and the wheels use some kind of foam rubber, which dissolve over time (lot of black dust...). Mine are used up quite a bit which results in lower and lower shuttle velocity. I've tried to glue some additional layer of foam rubber ontop of the existing one, which works great...for 3 shuttle, after this the glued foam rubber shoot away. So, you kind of need a closed ring of foam rubber, but I was unable find something fitting. Maybe someone with more crafting skills have some ideas ?
I can't see the issue with the foam as you can take the wheels apart and replace the foam in entirety. The case comes apart easily from the 8 screws around the side and then you can unscrew the cover of the wheels and take the foam off. It wouldn't be hard to cutout a new foam wheel in the existing shape or maybe modify some some rubber rc wheels. The main issue for me with the wheels is if I want to replace the motor the wheel appears to be stuck to the motor. I've ordered another one of these to investigate further as I'm getting them at about 80 euro inc delivery but I'll have to wait till April till it arrives when I try to get the wheels off, I don't want to try now as I want something to play with. Baddy website has gone, and I don't expect a v3 as there appeared to be a design flaw iif you're not into modding in that it was made for a specific type of motor which is now off the market. You can replace with a different motor but the baddy circuit board is proprietary and I don't know how well the motor would go with the case. Baddy was also quite expensive for what it was if you're a consumer rather than hobbyist as they were reselling standard components at a markup. You can get a similar one called Sptlooker of alibaba, but unless you get into the nuts and bolts of these launchers you're always going to be in trouble when something breaks, which is quite easily done with this type of product. The point of baddy was to open source this but it fell it little short unfortunately. The cheapo one is worth the case alone let alone the fact you also get useful components with it. Although they do use pretty cheap mini DC motors which are noisy! My main cost was delivery. I'll post more on this once I get the second one and start modding it properly.
I already took it apart. I thought about getting a foam rubber plate and cut out the wheel, but I'm unsure if it will hold. You need the exact thickness of the wheel foam. I already looked into rc wheels too, but wasn't able to find some wheels/motor combinations with similar diameter. I think too, for this pricepoint I used it for atleast 10k shuttles sofar. But I guess, that at ~15k-20k the wheels are used up too much.
I'll have another look at the wheels when I get some time and let you know if I can find a replacement solution
I received today a message via facebook from baddy after I contacted them 6 month ago: "Dear XXX, Thanks for your message. BADDY project is currently in sleep mode, waiting to have a more stable situation with the Covid. You can stay in touch with the project by subscribing to the project page and get notified once we got an update for evenyone. Cheers," Baddy is still breathing on the ICU.
Good luck with that. In the meantime I've rewired the cheap launcher with a remote and variable speed, and can program it with any routine I want. Just need to adjust it on court.
Ok cheap (needs to be cheap easily cuttable foam, packaging foam - not eva) of 20mm thick and two decent cookie/pastry cutters of 80mm and 40mm may work. If you have some pastry cutters laying around you could test this out, may have to sharpen them.
