Re: The end of week 3
 

Swampthing is waiting on waterjet and welding. Half the parts are in and a "few" are still waiting in the "balance". The design is "over the top" but if everything works as planned it will be quite "uplifting". The Madam Larue pinball machine lights work. Hopefully there won't be too many "hangups" "blocking" us from here on out. We're "shooting" for the next "3" weeks to go smoothly, but we'll have to wait and "see". :)

Re: The end of week 3
 

My team found that out a few nights ago when they managed to jump the battery over everything and off the robot. That was not a fun night because I spent the next hour replacing bits and pieces of the electronics...

Re: The end of week 3
 

Considering every year we set the goal of having a functioning prototype (aka Practice Bot) by the end of week two we are behind but we usually have the prototype by week four. We're probably a little behind but not concerned.

Re: The end of week 3
 

It's good to hear some teams are having slight setbacks and some seem a little ahead of schedule, I mean what would FIRST be without some good fun in discovering new things right?

As for team 1710, I'm a little skeptical on our bot design. But it is coming together much faster than had last year. The whole thing is kinda going up while being drawn in CAD so it's a little interesting seeing how things are put together as a programmer on the team, but none the less, I'm only worried that it functions to the team's expectations and hopefully get a good week's worth of practice.

I've also kinda worried how this year was going to work out considering our best mechanical team members were last year's, but it has progressed a much faster rate than last year, and I'll be able to implement many more sensors and testing devices to use on the bot if we wish. All said and done, we're easily twice as far as we were compared last year on the bot. (Last year I had about four days to test my programs and autonomous and figuring it all out making sure there were no faults. And only about a day and half of practice.)

Being the programmer on my team that was the first to successfully do autonomous has also put a great strain on me because they are asking now if we can do all these new sensors and ideas that they believe software can solve. And no doubt I'm sure we could get them all working in time, right now they are wanting cameras, ultrasonic, line sensors as a rpms reading device, gyros, and accelerometers. All of which I've never used or coded before, so its coming a burden to me. I've gotten some things to work, but not in the sense that they would want it. (Auto-targeting turret? Sure that would be nice. But it's kinda hard to do without some time with the bot.)

All said and done though. Hopefully our bot does atleast to the performance of our 2011 bot... I miss that thing :( (scrapped for parts for our new one).

May every team and member have a fun and good rest of the build season!

Re: The end of week 3
 

Week three is ending with the team trying to touch base again with communication. Everyone has been really excited about building and designing, but no one has been talking to each other. This has caused problems, incorrectly fabricated pieces, and stalled progress.

So this afternoon the team is pulling ourselves back together (instead of continuing to pull ourselves apart), and talking things through. We've got a chassis 2" shorter than we designed it sitting on a cart as we work through putting the drive train together, and two subsystems mostly designed in CAD. Our AndyMark and BaneBot's orders both came in yesterday. All in all, it's going to be OK as long as people stop panicking.

It's a solid, simple design and I have absolute faith in my teams abilities, so long as we work together. With five more hours tonight, and eight hours tomorrow, we can get some serious progress done.

Then week four begins, and we'll see what happens next!

Re: The end of week 3
 

Our 1st robot is structurally build and we have a mule robot that we been testing sensors on. We test and gotten to work the accelerometer, wheel encoders, and working on camera tracking this weekend. We have a long ways to go but should have one robot up and running by the end of this weekend and start to work on robot number two to have a practice robot.

Re: The end of week 3
 

We have a the entire robot built except the intake (almost completed, just needs to be mounted), shooter (again, mounted), and finish turret turning. Electrical is almost done wiring board and will start wiring motors on Monday. We hope to have it driving and shooting by Thursday.

Re: The end of week 3
 

2980 is sort of on track...I think!? We are in a bit of a holding pattern...In part because the frame isn't done being welded...we ordered some parts and had the wrong ones delivered, and they are now out of stock...We are waiting for a sponsor to get us some other parts...

While we really wanted to be ahead of schedule, we are sort of on schedule...but we still feel behind and are carrying a lot of stress because of it.

As for non-competitiveness...I think we will produce a pretty decent robot. Some of the other mentors and I feel that the team is a bit too laid back and hands off about it though. We struggle with things like fund raisers and essays...

The good news is that we do have a very friendly team that plays well with others though.

Re: The end of week 3
 

3467 is doing good, but no matter what team, what size, and what week we will always be behind in my mind! :p

On a more serious note, I believe we will deliver a very solid and competitive robot to GSR and CT. Our shooter should be shooting by tomorrow and our drive base is cut and ready for welding the beginning of next week. Ball mechanisms are prototyped but we are working on the fine details to get the parts ordered.

All in all, The Scorpion is coming along nicely and I'm very excited to see what our regionals bring! :)

Re: The end of week 3
 

Vets know this (at least i hope they do) and rookie's best piece of advice i can give you,

K.I.S.S

have fun as crunch time approaches

Re: The end of week 3
 

we almost have a working drivetrain, but part errors have put us behind, notably on the CNC'd bearing blocks. also, we were sent the wrong gears, so we don't have our drive gearboxes finished quite yet, although we will still be able to drive in high gear. we've started to CNC our tower members, and we're almost done with our aluminum parts, though we still need to make all the tower pieces.

Re: The end of week 3
 

My team is stilling working on drive train but programming is coming along great. Hope to have a rolling chassis built in a couple of days.

Re: The end of week 3
 

Our team is a little behind schedule mechanically, but things are shaping up, and the turret is already built. We should have a functional robot by the end of the build season. Programming is on schedule, and we should have a good computer vision system by the end of the build season.

Re: The end of week 3
 

Make sure you leave enough time to test your programming code nearing the end of build season to make sure it all is in check, I mean as a whole robot that is :D.

Re: The end of week 3
 

Our team (1002) is having great progress, much better than previous years! We're aiming to have our robot fully done a few days before the scrimmage at Kimberly Clark around February 20th.

We're just waiting for our waterjetted base panel parts, and we should be getting our base driving around by wednesday.

We have complete designs with drawings done now, we're CADing and ordering materials for the shooter and ball capture system so we can build those. I can't wait to get this robot driving around so I can practice and maybe invite a few teams over to our makeshift field (currently in progress) for a practice session.