FRC 2181 Robotics

We met tonight for a few hours to get things all set up for Irondale and start working on projects for after tomorrow. Andrew worked on the lights. Yes, the lights work and yes, they look AWESOME. I won't post a pic here so you'll all see them tomorrow. Andrew and Edward did a great job problem solving and getting them to work.  We finished off the "handles" for carrying the robot on and off the field. I think they're great and will make the drive team's life much easier.  Sam and Charlie worked on making new brackets for the other side of the intake. This will allow us to install the two new 1:100 gearboxes and we'll have two motors spinning the intake in and out which will make it smoother. We'll fully install them starting next week. We'll also re-do the drive train gearboxes next week. Gettel worked on making a more permanent hard stop solution. Our idea is making a couple right angle brackets to install on the intake so the force from it slamm...

A small group of the team (Edward, Andrew, Jayden, Matthew, and Charlie) met up on Tuesday before the impending big winter storm. Jayden and Charlie bent back the intake plates so we're ready to go for Irondale. Matthew got our new batteries all ready to go. Andrew worked on fixing the lights with lots of soldering.  Edward/Justin did a lot of autonomous testing so we can hopefully balance on a ramp sooner rather than later in autonomous.  We also spent some time making handles to make carrying the robot on and off the field easier. We just need some rope and carabiners to finish it off. Basically, we'll use eyebolts on the robot and clip on to carry the robot on and off the field with ease.  We also spent some time talking about/designing a second level to the robot cart. This won't be done by Irondale but will be completed by the Regional. See the pic below for our list of items to accomplish before the Regional (after Irondale).

We had a great time! Other than one run in with a robot that bent the plates a little, we had a great day. Lots of programming fixes, lots of driver practice, and lots of good times. We definitely had a unique robot design in comparison to many teams (only a couple robots with no arms) but our quality of construction was top notch. We even won the Autonomous Award!! Yay! Match Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiPzseFbQmRf0hZUiobuNXOopum7Obshy Jeremy Photos/Videos: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOpqHoqbJnV2--xbUkiM4L8TiUN8DLnz5TYkq-3TSdbWcg4BKY-Bl5829XbrgovMQ?key=TW1KZnpYRlE4Y1c3c3pnVS1GTUJnZ0pVVW1BUGVB Edward's Dad Photos: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipM8DeYb6QRZ6lWLPyi7e_ChS5kdzaRaUMNRe24jnGGmpUezf-w_LHAjx_5GP_qREQ?key=bWRSUy1VdW5JUTlNMUdXVDM2NkQ2V3R5bUE5OFZB

Last meeting before Eagan! The main highlight is that Sam did a bunch of test driving with each of the operators. We had some snafus with chain and other things so we didn't get in as much drive practice as we'd like but we got some in. One of our "practice runs" of 2 minutes 15 seconds had about 8 scoring opportunities. If we get that up to 9-10 per real match, we'll be sitting pretty. Jayden and Edward will do test driving at Eagan (Sam will get at least one shot on the field as well).  A bunch of people made some plates to cover the chains if the inspectors say we need them. We will probably end up putting them on no matter what but we will at least have them at Eagan if we get yelled at. We also swapped out the bad redline motor quickly. It was nice that it was a fairly easy fix.  We tested autonomous a few times which is great. We can consistently score on the high cube and it drives away. So the next steps for that is just testing timing over and over again.

 Wednesday  What a day! I'm going to jump to the exciting part first. We used the robot on a "fake field" setup in a big hallway for about 40 minutes today. That's amazing! We rotated through some people trying out driving and operating. It was so fun to see the robot executing all the things we've worked on for the last 5 weeks. Seriously so cool. I cannot wait for more tomorrow! The sad news is we'll have to replace the redline motor on the gearbox that takes the shooter assembly in and out. We knew it was bad when it was smoking on Monday so it was a matter of time. Much better that the motor poop out today than at Eagan on Saturday so not altogether a bad thing. But still annoying we'll have to fix it tomorrow.  As far things done today, we assembled the hood or ramp (whatever you want to call it). It looks stellar. Sam and Charlie did a great job on it. It's cool because even in our little bit of testing today, the ramp came in handy many times.  ...

Happy Valentines Day! The big news is that the robot drives, picks up cubes, and shoots them! So that's freaking awesome! We didn't have time for full driver practice/testing, but we did a little bit in the robot work area and at least proved that all the systems are functioning. Yay!! We got the battery strap for the battery on so we're good there. We also got the supports for the "ramp" on the robot. The "ramp" was cut on the plasma cutter and we just need to bend it a little more to get that all good too. Woo!  We tested the prototype hardstop that Jarrod had thought about. It hypothetically works but does not in its current form where the intake plates can go down into the springs. The plan is to come back to this after Eagan and/or Irondale when we have time to think a little more on it. It's got promise, we just don't have time at this exact moment.  Edward fixed a bunch of programming things as well. The CAN bus got a little screwy after a...

Lots checked off our lists today. Andrew H and Justin did a bunch of electrical wire cleaning up. It looks MUCH better! Sam and Charlie made some more bumper mounts and also started designing a ramp on the back off of our robot so that game pieces don't land on us and stay inside. They'll finish this Tuesday.  Jarrod and some others started work on a different soft stop for the intake than what we currently have. The plastic on the current hard stops get MANGLED by the intake so it's not a permanent solution like a spring system would be.  Jayden and Charles did AWESOME work on the blue and red bumpers. ALL BUMPERS ARE COMPLETE! YAY! Bumpers are one of those things that are not fun but have to get done so it's a big weight off our shoulders to have them completed and all ready to go. Seriously, this is big!! Edward kept going on programming. We were able to do a little more testing with buttons on 2 controllers and power levels of all the motors. We had a hiccup with mo...

Last Saturday before Eagan! Wooo!!  Sam, Jayden, and I worked on rebuilding the intake/shooter for hopefully one of the last times. We used the new plates and it all came together wonderfully. It took a while because we had to assemble the new gearbox and hex hubs and stuff. So yeah, new shooter/intake is all ready. Our other big task was making the "hard stops" for the mechanism to be brought in and put out with a controller so we got that done as well. Matthew and Gettel worked on getting the front bumper all set. I didn't record a video because we only practiced shooting once or twice but, for the most part, the mechanical aspects of the robot are all ready to go for now. Yay! Andrew H and Matthew did a great job on electrical today. They installed the encoders that they could which included a lot of tedious soldering. They also installed the operating light on a bracket so we're all good there too. There's still some wire management to do among other things bu...

Whirlwind of a day! It was our singular focus to get the robot all back together and in better shape than before. We cut and assembled the new wider shooter with full compliant wheels across. The shooter/intake is now 18.5" across (it was 16"). It's also centered on the robot now. This will help us pick up cubes easier and hopefully be more consistent shooting them. It was a kind of a hectic assembly with attaching bolts to the brackets and then moving them and then deciding on a width and then taking it apart and then and then... Jayden and Mohamud especially did a great job patiently putting things on and then taking them apart. BUT! It's all together now!  Charlie and Sam cut the pieces for the red bumper mounts and bent them. All that's left is to mount them on the bumpers at the right height/location and we'll be all set (at least for week zero). They also cut out the new intake/shooter plates which are AWESOME. We're waiting on another gearbox and he...

Short meeting today with light attendance. We finished the belly pan adjustments (moving motor controllers again). We also spent some time getting the battery mounts all set to go. We just need to rivet them down and we're pretty much all set for now.  We cut out the bumper mounts after some troubleshooting with the CAD files. There's a few more to cut and then we need to mount them on the red bumpers and we'll be all set there as well. We cut out a test version of the new intake/shooter panels. They look INCREDIBLE. We don't have the aluminum to cut now ones right now but maybe something will happen with our machine shop contact. Finally, we took apart the shooter and replaced all the hardware (nuts and bolts) for the correct lengths and a consistent socket head and 3/8" nut. We also developed a plan to reassemble it wider and within the frame perimeter so we're legal for week zero.  Excited to get everything back together on Thursday! We're hoping (it...

We thought about next phases today including the bumpers, intake/shooter, electrical, and programming.  Charlie got to work CADing up the new intake/shooter plates with Jarrod. They were able to finish them so we can either plasma cut them ourselves or have a machine shop who offered to help do it. The geometry changed a little based on what we've learned with all our testing. We also ordered a new gearbox to have them matching (they are the same gear ratio on the intake/shooter now but not the same brand). We are going to get new bolts/nuts so they're shorter, match everywhere, and it's easier to service if something happens or we need to make changes. We might also paint it green, so it looks like a crocodile (or not). Matthew CADed up new bumper mounts for the new red bumpers that have been made. Sam can make these on Tuesday. Jayden moved the blue bumper mounts to be higher so it's easier for us to get on the charging station ramp. We will be ready to go for matches...

Long day of intake/shooter testing today. With the prototype version 2.0 all assembled, it was time to refine, test, refine, test, try something else, test, and so on. Our main goal is consistency on getting the cube on the mid and high shelf. We are confident we can get the cube on the low area by spitting it back out but we are aiming for a bigger goal than that. Ideally, we are the most reliable cube scoring team at our Regional so we're doing what we need to do to get there.  That includes moving the motors around today, trying different combinations of wheel spacing, putting in a plastic hood, putting in fabric, changing speeds of motors, changing orientations of the cube, etc. etc.  Here's our final combination so far: We pick up the cube at 75% power. We flip the intake into the robot. We intake the cube some more so it's fully back in the assembly only touching one axle, back stopped by fabric. Then we shoot the cube at 100% power. with two full sets of compliant wh...

The biggest event of the practice today was having the robot fully remote control pick up and eject a cube. It wasn't perfect but it worked!!! That's a big deal! We can celebrate this moment and also know that it'll only get better from here! Now we have 2 weeks to get it all perfected as much as we can. Then we'll have a few more weeks after the Week Zeros to perfect/practice even more.  Back to the important stuff. We got our 80:1 gear box in the mail today along with the gears for moving the whole intake in and out. So we spent a bunch of time taking off the old brackets, installing the new ones, figuring out spacers, putting together the gear box, installing hubs on the intake/shooter, etc. It took most of the meeting time and we didn't actually have it all together until 7:45pm haha. But it was SO COOL when it worked. Shoutout to everyone on the team having a hand in getting it ready. Also, big shoutout to Jarrod for having his math/CAD work!! Justin and Willia...