by Nathan Duong '16

Competition Preparation: Transportation Crate

The second layer of paint has been applied to the transportation crate and is now finished!

Field Construction: 1 Point Goals

Members of the team have continued to construct the two wooden 1\-point goals to mirror the left side of the field.

Pit Lights

The pit lights are being restored by soldering the wires after previously being burnt out. In addition, the HTML and CSS for the lights added "knightrider," "rainbow," and custom color effects.

Bumper Fabric

The new, extra layer of fabric is being applied to the bumper of the robot, therefore removing the drawback of being "T-boned."

Wheel Hubs

The team continued to work on and improve the CAD of the future wheel hubs that will also expel drawback time from "T-boning" by increasing the width of the center wheel.

Web App

The web app is being worked on and members of the team sought to include FRC/VEX hours, the directory, and blog. Also, the logo for the app is being designed. Ideally this app will be available on iOS with open access to the students on their iPads and mobile devices.

Action Items

• Bumper fabric testing
• Rebuild bumper frames for competition
• 1-Point Goals
• See board

by Nathan Duong '16

Transportation

The 5’ x 5’ x 5’ wooden crate that will be used for tool transportation in the St. Louis trip is being worked on. The first of two coats of blue paint was applied to patch the blank patches in a lighter color.

Scrimmaging

Scrimmaging is continually being conducted in preparation for worlds.

Reducing Cycle Time

Testing Bumper Material

In addition, new bumper fabric is being added to lower the coefficient of friction and time "T-boned."

Wheel Hubs

The team cut six solid metal 2’ x 4’s for wider wheel hubs. This will create more traction on Barrage’s wheels to lessen time "T-boned."

Field Construction: 1 Point Goals

The team has been brainstorming to create two more wooden 1-point goals based on the measurements from the CAD. These are being constructed in order to have balanced coverage of goals on the left-most side of the field.

Action Items

by: Brenden Farrer

Today at the lab, other FIRST teams, such as Spartan Robotics, came to practice with our field. The primary focus was on fixing the practice robot and Skystalker to continue driver practice with the other teams.

Skystalker

A "hat" was built for Skystalker that allows it to block and carry a ball. The wheels were retreaded, as the previous ones have worn down. Hopefully these new defense capabilities will provide more practice for the drive team.

Practice Robot

Today students began discussion and planning of future projects. However, a second ball settler was attached to reduce the motion of inbounded or caught balls to increase accuracy when shooting. Adding a powerslide wheel was discussed, no changes were implemented today.

Prep for World's

For the trip to St. Louis, all of the tools will be shipped in a 5’ x 5’ x 5’ wooden crate. Using the measurements from the CAD designed yesterday, the wood pieces were cut and assembled.

Action Items

• See board

by Dan Ngo '17

Tasks

Today, the team started with a discussion about our performance in SVR, between all of the mentors and members at the lab. During that, the team addressed most of the issues that the robot had during the tournament, which mainly consisted of getting stuck by T-boning from an opponent, which would cause too much friction escape, as well as improving and testing new autonomous, to cover new possibilities and better reliability. The other issues include general fixing, testing, and making of parts and possible ways to improve our alliances.

Programming

During the present team meeting, concerns were raised about possible robots blocking the goal autonomous, so it was decided that another autonomous would be made to suit this situation, shooting immediately instead of waiting for a hot goal. Before we could do this, however, Skystalker had to be fixed, with the router unable to connect to our computers.

Maintenance

Thus, Skystalker had to be fixed up and made taller to test the new autonomous that accounted for goal blocking. For practice, the practice Barrage was also updated and fixed, to catch it up with the competition Barrage at SVR. Then autonomous testing began.

The team additionally had to unpack and reorganize all the parts brought back from SVR, as well as general reorganization of the shelves.

With a large amount of untested batteries, the team also decided to test all of them in preparation for Worlds. This was done by hooking the batteries up to a computer, drawing current, and and calculating the condition of the battery once the current drops in value. Additionally, leads were added to new batteries.

Public Relations

Returning from SVR, the team flyer had to be updated to be current with the SVR version of Barrage. The technical binder also had discrepancies and errors to be fixed.

Action Items

• Continue autonomous testing
• Continue upgrading Skystalker
• Continue testing batteries
• Build new bumpers
• See picture and/or whiteboard

by Brendan Farrer '17

This lab day was mainly dedicated to preparing for the SVR tournament and finishing up the Chairman’s binder and Technical binder.

Pit Display

The final touches were made to the pit display, including fixing the remote light controls and adding a carousel effect for when it is inactive. While programmers edited the code, other members finished the content for the display, such as re-writing the technical page.

Machining

To assist in collaborative gameplay, a polycarb backing was created to mount on the hood. This allows the human players from other teams to inbound more accurately.

Practicing

To continue driver and human player practice, the pinniped pistons were added back to the robot and the modifications were finished to the catching system. These modifications allow the robot to catch balls thrown by a human player without opening the intake. Several team members were also trained to be human partners for the robot.

Writing

Several team members contributed to the completion of the Tech Binder along with the Chairman’s Award Binder. Although the majority of the work was completed, they continue to format and edit the content.

SVR Packing

With only two days until SVR, the necessary tools and materials for the competition were prepared to be packaged for travel. Mentors and students went through travel crates, re-labeling and organizing for the optimal set up.

by Samuel Buxton '16

Scrimmage

Today was an eventful day at the lab. In preparation for the SVR (Silicon Valley Regional) our drivers trained against some of the best teams in the region, including 1868, 971, 192. and 776.

SVR Prep

Upstairs the team fixed "Barrage’s" intake, and a separate project using some colorful LEDs light up the pit.

The "Minion Project" reached a milestone with the completion of a mini mascot costume, which was unveiled this weekend. The costume is based on the original "Cheesy Poof" costume from South Park.

Work continued for the pit display and drivers got the opportunity to sharpen their skills for the upcoming tournament.

by Nathan Duong '16 and Josh Fluegemann '17

Pit Display

The programmers of the team worked on the pit display; they primarily sought to improve the quality of the display through cleaning up the HTML and CSS of the web application. Today, they added lightbox capabilities to the web box.

Pit Lights

In addition, notches were made in the pit lights tubing for soldering.

Chairman's Binder

Research is being done for the chairman’s binder; members are compiling a list the alumni’s colleges.

Intake

The intake is being put back together after individual parts were sent back from Waterloo. To do so, the plate, motor, and intake roller were reconnected with the skeleton of the intake.

Action Items

• Manufacture above parts and install on robot (all McMaster parts required have arrived) - Travis/ Colin
• Finish shooter redesign (SDP and VEX parts are on order) - Paul
• Prepare sponsor welcome packets for when sponsors come to SVR - Stephen
• Work on pit-lights and finish assembly - Ken
• Cut/install vinyl labels on hinged-lid totes (light blue, dark blue and black all need new vinyl) - Travis/Mani
• Test LCD mounts - test installation on trussing - Travis/Ken
• Finalize video banner - Ryan
• Improve Pit Display and test with new monitors and projector - Ryan
• Design projector mount for video banner - Travis
• Finalize video banner mount - Travis
• Fix/create hand sanitizer mount - Mani
• Design/build new bumper hangers for truss - Travis/Mani
• Improve technical binder - Andrew
• Improve Chairman's binder - Jeremy/Andrew
• Improve Chairman's video - Jeremy/ Kevin
• Re-print all binders and sponsor packets with correct bleeds and page splits - Jeremy

by Jose Moreno '17

Machining

Today several students were machining several tubes and rods to be made into multiple extra intakes.

Most of today, the team focused on making a new hood extender, which is now able to reach the third bolt hold, and extends an extra inch for a new shot angle.

Writing

Today students edited the Madera articles for the Carillon Online News Source, the Cardinal Newspaper, the Bellarmine Website, and others. They also edited the script for the Chairman’s Award Video.

by Ford Hooper '17 and Brendan Conaway '17

VEX State Championships

Since much of the team is busy preparing for the VEX state championships, the number of team members attending was below average today. Even so, the team was able to make critical improvements in working towards becoming prepared for the Waterloo regional.

Technical Binder

Today, most of the members at the NASA lab were focused on reconstructing the technical binder. This binder is the summary of the robot and the steps the team has taken to design it. The binder is a large part of the judges’ decision on the winners of the Quality Award.

CAD

Other members were working on designing a new CAD for the hood piece of the robot.

Post Madera

Several members wrote 7 articles about the team’s experience at the Madera Robotics Tournament this past weekend.

Action Items

by Brendan Conaway '17

Testing

Today the team did some driver training for Madera by driving around the field, scoring some goals, and practicing passing over the truss. Skystalker functioned as an opponent bot for driver practice. The air was refilled on Barrage several times and the wiring was fixed once or twice.

Awards

A few of the members worked on the Chairman’s Award binder. The presentation is done and awaits finishing touches. The presenters will be the head of competition (human megaphone), the programming director, and the director of outreach. It is highly encouraged to nag them to practice the presentation. Team members should know who they all are.

Madera

Madera is this weekend! There was a shipment of supplies that came in, and it was packed into the black boxes that will be brought to Madera. Those going will be leaving on Friday, March 7th, right after school and returning on March 9th later in the evening. Be ready for a 2 hour drive. Let’s win this!!

Pit AV

Some students worked on making the pit display for use at competitions. Other students worked on the touchscreen display to be used in the pit.