Competition

So yesterday was the day of the FTC competition. Unfortunately we didn't go on to state. All day, everything went wrong for us. Our lifter didn't lift the way we wanted it to, the laptop wouldn't stay charged to practice and code while there. We were missing pieces that we needed. And our batteries wouldn't stay charged. But winning isn't everything. Some members did get to meet some amazing people and entertain each other afterwards. After the competition, most of the team when out to eat. One of the captain received an ironic fortune that was needed for the previous day. I can say that everyone enjoyed their self. :)

Last build day session 2

Lot of rushed progress in the second session. We finished the side arms that stabilizer the lifter while it is lifting. To release, it is really touchy. A bump on the side will release them. We made adjustment to the robot so it will meet the size requirement. It fixes inside of our case. This ensures that it is in the requirements since it was built to be one sixteenths of an inch under 18 in.. We tightened all of the bolts and nuts that were loosen and reinforced the forklift system. The kit of items that we are to take is finished as well as the B.O.M(Bill Of Materials). All there is left to do is the programming award requirements which should be only printing out the code. Since the rush is over, more about the team will be posted in my free time or at the next session. Until then, wish us luck(i have a feeling that we will need it).  :)

Last Build Day Session 1

Today, the main thing done by me was organizing. This is important because we need to gather items for tomorrow. We started a B.O.M but the only thing that was thought that was bought was the surgical tubing. Yay us for using mostly K.O.P items. Someone( as in me) is creating a To-do list for when we get settled in tomorrow and a To Bring list for things that may be needed.Since it is the day before competition, we decided not to buy any more. This mean we need to save surgical tubing. Our idea was to put tissue behind it so the C-Channel doesn't cut into it. We also buffed the C-Channel so the edges weren't so sharp. Our Sr. Programmer(who is ironically a Senior in high school) came today to fix the code. We still have hope left. As for the lift stabilizer, we added zip-ties to hold it in place better. Not much major has been done to the robot, just some fine tuning.

January 24th, Session 2

Last post for today. A lot was done compared to previous meetings. We fix and reattached the lifter. A lot of problems have came up when we started to depend on it for points. The lifter lifted in a pulsing kind of way. It seems like the wiring and/or the program was messed up. Both was tampered with so we don't know for sure. New support beams were also attached. The old ones weren't long enough. One of the team members managed to brake the surgical tubing that we could not cut for the life of us, go figure. We did get new tubing on. The case for the robot is being stained and made to look pleasing. One member started a B.O.M(Bill Of Materials) for the robot. She also started to track the money that was made with our fundraisers and started a community outreach paper. Tomorrow, a check list will be made for extra things to take with us for competition such as extra batteries and screws. Tomorrow is the last build session for us. Wish us luck!

January 24th, Session 1

The first half of our all day meeting is done. We decided that we needed to make a to-do list to double check that everything is ready for competition. We received out team shirts today and began to distribute them to those that bought one. The box for the robot and notebook is almost finish. The glue for the bottom shelf is drying and will probably be finish during the second session. We are testing the program to make sure that our autonomous does what we want it to and that the manual works the way we want. Double checking the pieces of the robot to limit potential problems at competition will be done after the break. This includes the rod feed through the bracket points as well as the rods, the bracket "elbows" that supports the lifter, and the lift stabilizer. Since we are powered by a battery, we thought that making a charging station will be useful. Posting again will be attempted at the end of the second session, that is if i am not working on something that will be very useful (such as the robot).

So we are in the process of making the stabilizer better. We drilled holes in a the lift stabilizer to attach wheels. This will allow a smoother release(hopefully) as well as more stability since it is spreading the weight over a larger area.
(Programmer hijacking this blog for a moment! The motors are hooked up fine for their primary functions, but there's a new doodleybopper attached to the robot that I'm supposed to raise and lower with the arms, and I don't know which motors make those go up and down, so I've just gotten the robot to autonomously drive forward-- though, with no field tests yet, I don't know what I'll need to adjust the values to so that the motors sync up with their power levels, so that's on the to-do list, not that I'll be here tomorrow either, hehe-- and have its arms go up and down. And then it plays a pretty song, because they said I just had to write a code, not that I couldn't have fun with it. Giving it back to Marquel now~!)
We also decided to make a case for the robot and notebook. We are drilling holes to put it together. We fix the wiring and can now proceed with the coding. Only one day left to finish all that we have left to do. Wish us best of luck!

With only 2 more sessions left, it starting to get more and more complicated. We realized that with every fling of the arms, the surgical tubing is cut a little. We decided to bring extra since it is almost cut from just practice runs. We also had some problems with ether coding or wiring. The program we wrote now lifts using the analogs and not the back buttons. Rewiring the controllers will hopefully fix this problem. We have a team building a test robot for lifting purposes. If our lifter works like it should, lifting this robot will be easy, well to score at least 30 points. We also have an idea to make the lifter our trigger for the lifting stabilizer. A good idea since the stabilizer is so close to the ground and may get in the way while driving around.

Its the end of our build session for today. We didn't find any spacers and the motor controller that we thought about using doesn't...fully. One side of it works but we will need the full motor controller for our robot to function properly. We finished a basic working design for our lifting stabilizer. Its as simple as a piece that shoots out from the center of the robot, at the bottom, and prevents the robot from tilting. The pieces that stop the lifter from shaking are back on. There were taken off to put new pieces on. So with that, we also had to tighten screws that were not as tight as they should have been. A lot was done for a 3 hour session with only 3 members.

No School? Same Schedule

With our time going away quickly, we decided to scheduled more meetings. So far today, we thought of an idea that may make our lifter more stable. One, we changed the spacers between the arm and the actual lifter. And two, we changed the pieces that were used as support to a piece of c-channel. We also changed one of our gear controllers and are now looking at the program just in case the wiring got reversed changing it. Finally, after an hour and a half. we make the connector for our side arms(not to be confused with guns) rounder for a smoother and more reliable release. This is the first meeting since our extended break so we are also brainstorming ideas for autonomous mode. There is a programming award that requires an autonomous. We have no ideas as to what to do since our robot only lifts others and defend.

Another meeting has came to an end. We finally recieved the surgical tubing that we needed for our robot. We realized that when we tried to lift another robot, our robot tips. So we designed a lift balancer. We also recieved some Lexan. It was cut today. Finally, we bents plastic safe-guards for our vertical robot stabilizer. Next Saturday is competition and we hope to have all of our details finished. Wish us luck.

Our time is coming to an end. With the competition around the corner, we have to hurry and finish the last details of our robot. Today we noticed that some of our screws and nuts were loose so we tighted all of them(hopefully). We also noticed that our lift mechanism still wobbled a little so we are working on making it more stable. It seems like our program is, if not then almost, done. We wired and soldered the main control box. Lastly, we worked on making our edges of certain pieces smoother and more pleasing to those that don't like pain. Go figure. Thats it for todays session.

So with the surprise meeting coming to an end, we have basic code. Our robot finally moves! We also build a 3 part stabilizer for lifting other robots and secured some parts of our robot such as the connections between two pieces of C-channel.

Currently, the support pieces are still being shaped. We set up the motors to drive, but they don't quite work at the moment. The lifting arms were added to the lift system. The frame is also being reinforced with extra nuts and bolts. We are also currently developing outrigger system so the robot won't tip over.

In the first two hours of this meeting, we started the robotc programming. We also rewired the wires for the whole robot. New support pieces for the lift were made with the ban saw. The swing arms are being replaced with new, shorter rods. Also, we are still needing industrial rubber bands.

The t-shirt design was finished earlier today.

Today we cut hinges for the stabilizing mechanism, set dates for our t-shirt pre-sales, started programming our robot, and worked on the sponser part/back of the t-shirt.

First build session of 2013

Sorry about not posting after the meeting. Some things just got forgotten. Not much was done after that post. We finished our new lifting idea. Today, we assembled the second stack on top. We also did some more wiring for the second stack and rest of the robot. Also, our draw slide was moved along with the completion for the forklift design to grasp other robots. Hopefully we will be able up post images of our robot on the blog so you all can also see out progress.