Left/right drift

You may observe that shots gradually drift left or right as you shoot a hopper of balls. Some drift is natural, and you should just re-aim the machine when you re-fill it, but if it seems excessive (more than 6 feet in a hopper, for example) there may be an issue. Here are some potential causes, which may let you solve it yourself.

  1. Recoil is causing the machine to move. The force of the ball launch does cause the Proton to hop backwards a small amount with each shot. Since the shot comes from the center of the machine it should move straight back. If your machine is unbalanced (hopper leans to one side, for example) that shifts the center of mass and can result in some twisting. A good test for this issue is to run a program that doesn’t move (like “groove it”) and see if the aim changes over a 25 shot test.

  2. The drive wheel is slightly slipping on the court. The machine has one driven wheel for side-to-side motion, and it has better traction when pushing the machine (like a rear-wheel-drive car) than when pulling it (like a front-wheel-drive car). If this is your issue, you can use the "drift compensation” in the calibration menu and it will move a little bit extra in one direction with each move.

  3. Rear wheel drive belt is slipping. The powered rear wheel is belt-driven with a stepper motor. It is possible that the belt lacks sufficient tension. You can hear this on the court if you are next to the machine (it will make a clunk clunk clunk sound) but you can investigate at home using the app in “manual mode” . Use the arrows to drive the machine left and right. Put a little pressure on the machine to simulate a load of balls. At some pressure level you should hear the belt drive skipping steps, but if you can stop it very easily it may need adjustment. To fix it, do the following steps:

    • Flip the machine upside-down and remove all 9 screws to take off bottom cover. Use the 3mm hex key we provided, or one you might have in a bicycle repair kit.

    • Try turning the drive wheel by hand to get a feel for the torque at which the belt will slip in both directions.

    • Loosen screws A and B in the picture below with the 3mm hex key. Loop a piece of thread under screw B and pull in the direction shown, with about 2-3 lbs of force. While still pulling on screw B, tighten screw A. Recheck the torque at which it will slip - hopefully you made it better!

      Here’s a video version of the repair:

 
 

4. Rear wheel pulley is slipping. Try turning the drive wheel by hand. If the wheel can turn without also turning the belt, then the pulley is likely slipping on the drive wheel shaft. With a 2mm hex key, check that both the set screws in the pulley are firmly installed (use loctite blue if you happen to have it). When you are done, turning the wheel by hand should cause the belt to skip steps. The pulley should always move with the drive wheel.

5. Drive belt tension is too high. Wiggle the drive wheel back and forth. You should feel a bit of play from backlash in the motor gears. If there is no play, the belt tension may be too high. Follow the instructions for option (1) above to re-set the belt tension.4. If it’s none of those items, it will likely need to come in for adjustment here, so please contact support@hydrogensports.com. Debris or cracks on the court can also cause challenges for the left/right movement, but if you’ve come this far I suspect it’s something worse. :)