Re: Laying it all out there
 

Team 4264,

Our rookie year was 2003 and we used castors and two driven wheels in the back...ours worked great! Its not the best drive system, but it does work, its cheap, and that year our torquey drive system allowed us to make Semi-finals at GSR because we 0wned the slick ramp. Keep it geared low and you'll be fine. If you want to climb the median, some 8-10" bicycle wheels on the back should allow you to climb over, maybe add some deflector plates around whatever castors you use. Ball casters (we used them twice) will do worse than regular castors on the median. Regular castors will twist to get over, but ball castors will likely get ripped off.

I would use a CIM motor on the ball shooter with direct drive. Certainly better setups, but our tests with a simple, one-wheel pitching machine and a CIM direct to the shaft worked pretty well. Put that bad boy on a jag and you should be able to score some points.

And I agree with the other teams, reach out to your local teams and reach out to your inspectors. Robot inspection is more stringent than bridge inspection (I build bridges, and its true) and yes, the process is iterative. The judges will help you, and getting a prelim opinion on the things you have to fix is a great strategy for anyone!

Good luck! Feel free to send me any questions,

Jim, EIT

Re: Laying it all out there
 

I highly recommend you go and watch 1114's Kitbot on Steroids presentation, the configuration can be set up for a narrow or wide side pick up and uses nothing but the kit of parts. Trust me it works very well and fairly easy to program (as far as programming goes). If you need anything don't hesitate to ask the CD community, you will get many great answers. Good luck this year! :D

Re: Laying it all out there
 

in my opinion as a new team create just a kit bot but give it the ability to go over the bridge and practice balancing so u get points. and get 2 more cims to make a better drive train

Re: Laying it all out there
 

A lot of other people prefer that rookie teams at least take a shot at doing something other than just being a brickbot that plays defense. Which is exactly what these guys are doing: trying to get a scoring mechanism going.

Re: Laying it all out there
 

Build the kit bot (for drive). Simple, easy, effective.

Re: Laying it all out there
 

4264,

Check your private messages; We might be able to help you out.

-roger

Re: Laying it all out there
 

We are considering using the plastic FP gearbox (for our collector) because one of our mentors thinks it will be easy to connect to PVC. Did you actually use the gearbox or did you just cannabalize it for the gears, and if you actually used, could you give me some feedback on how to interface into the gearbox's input and output? (or alternatively tell me that if its a bad idea)

Re: Laying it all out there
 

One of our Hall of Fame teams, Cybersonics (103), also runs a FIRST rural support network. I bet they'd also be happy to help you out in whatever ways they can. They're in Pennsylvania (a town 60% the size of yours, actually), but they're an amazing team in all aspects and have built up an astounding resource network and knowledgebase.

Re: Laying it all out there
 

Siri,

Thank you very much for all of your compliments. :) I will PM the team in need to see where we can help. To anyone in need of help in anyway, rural or non-rural, please let me know. FIRST is the hardest fun you will have and we are always willing to help. :)

Cassie

Re: Laying it all out there
 

Don't forget that scoring on the bridge can bring your alliance 10-20 points if on your alliance bridge or up to 2 Qualifying Points on the co-op bridge in the center, so even without a ball scoring mechanism, just getting up on the bridge to balance has a lot of value.

Re: Laying it all out there
 

Well, yes, it happens all the time, but let's try to avoid as much of that as possible while there is time.

BUT: If you do show up at competition without a fully-functioning robot, ASK FOR HELP IMMEDIATELY. Teams will be tripping over each other to help you get up & running.

You might be happier with a 4-wheel system, using chain to drive the back wheels from the same motor as the fronts. But we did use ball casters one year, it wasn't awful, but our drivers had to practice a lot to get good at it. Oh, and they get gunked up a lot, clean them after every 2-3 matches.

Don't diss those FP motors, they sure do look wimpy but they're very powerful. But if you stall them (apply power while the shaft can't move) they'll let out the magic smoke very quickly.

Keep asking ANY and ALL questions here on CD. All of us are problem solvers for fun, and we'd love to get a shot at solving yours.:D

Re: Laying it all out there
 

Team,
I only have a few minutes so I haven't read all the posts if this has been stated already. If you have any plans of going onto the bridge, casters are the worst thing you could try. While they could be made to work OK on flat floors you cannot control them on a sloped surface. Teams have ignored this warning in the past so I will tell you that once you find the casters a burden, you can fix the position of the wheel. Just drill a hole through the plates of the caster, insert a screw and nut to lock the rotating pieces and turn the casters into non-rotating wheels. We abandoned casters in '98 and that played on a flat floor, never to be resurrected.

Re: Laying it all out there
 

You must regale us now with the story of your run to the FINALS!!!
Congradulations. Hope you had a great time.