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joelg236 07-12-2012 22:09

Final month preparations
 
There is now a little less than a month 'till kickoff! What little things does your team do during the last month that are usually overlooked by a lot of teams? Obviously there are things like supplies and teaching new students, but are there things that end up being invaluable later on that can be done now? I'm very excited for robots and want to make sure we are all prepared this year. :D

Oh yeah, and I've already thought of going on CD all day. :p

sanddrag 07-12-2012 22:09

Re: Final month preparations
 
Say goodbye to friends and family :D

Honestly though, I'll be enjoying the calm before the storm. I worked on Christmas Eve and New Years day last year, restoring an old lathe and getting our lab ready. Not this time.

F22Rapture 07-12-2012 22:16

Re: Final month preparations
 
Get your animations and Chairman's award paperwork out of the way before build season starts :D

Planning a pit design ahead of time isn't a bad idea either. As the season progresses you can look back on it and make changes, but it's much easier to start out some good ideas and gradually refine them throughout the season (hey, we forgot something!) than it is to have to think of everything in one go without making mistakes.

Phyrxes 07-12-2012 22:48

Re: Final month preparations
 
I'm spending this weekend comparing VexPro products to some of the other products we traditionally purchase to have on hand, I think this is a good problem to have.

midway78224 07-12-2012 22:57

Re: Final month preparations
 
Getting our standard building material ready. Teaching the new kids the process of going thought kickoff. Comparing items from andymark and vexpro. Getting ready for FIRST Choice. Can't wait less then a month to kick off.

Good luck to all the FRC teams this yr.

lorem3k 07-12-2012 23:13

Re: Final month preparations
 
Get a head start on building the robot. How else are we going to gain an advantage over everybody else? (disclaimer: please adhere to all FRC rules and regulations.)

Start to prepare an area to work in, make sure all your tools and materials are properly organized, and get some new students to practice driving on previous robots and get a feel for what it's like to control 119.99 pounds of aluminium with wheels.

gabrielau23 08-12-2012 14:17

Re: Final month preparations
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by lorem3k (Post 1199761)
Get a head start on building the robot. How else are we going to gain an advantage over everybody else? (disclaimer: please adhere to all FRC rules and regulations.)

Start to prepare an area to work in, make sure all your tools and materials are properly organized, and get some new students to practice driving on previous robots and get a feel for what it's like to control 119.99 pounds of aluminium with wheels.

199.99 lbs? Thats it? Lol for 2537, we were at 120.0

Kevin Selavko 08-12-2012 19:16

Re: Final month preparations
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by gabrielau23 (Post 1199858)
199.99 lbs? Thats it? Lol for 2537, we were at 120.0

120 pounds with battery and bumpers! Thats impressive:p

Mk.32 08-12-2012 19:37

Re: Final month preparations
 
We are setting up our new mini lathe and mill as well as training students in every aspect of design/fabrication.

I am working out the final CAD designs for a new iteration of our WCD, and getting our stock of alum and parts refilled

Will be a fun season :3

ttldomination 08-12-2012 19:48

Re: Final month preparations
 
We've actually been in PRE-FRC mode for a month or two now. Some plans fell through the cracks, others are still holding strong.

(1) We're buying things. FIRST Choice, all these PDVs, a weak inventory, and a new found drive means that we need to pick quite a few things. We're placing large orders now, and hopefully, large orders soon after we see the game.

(2) We're training people. This is not only the obvious training in CAD and programming, but rookies are also being brought up on the basic of manipulators/DT/competition/etc. and we're running them through old games. Just, quick, 20-30 minute brainstorming sessions.

(3) We're volunteering. The team is working on putting a bow on our volunteering with a string of FLL events coming up. This means that we will volunteer at FLL events for a solid 3-4 straight weekends.

(4) We're winding down. The end of the school year is upon us, and so we're looking at winding down the team. This means that, everyone gets a chance to think about and contemplate on designs/practices that we will hopefully use during the build season.

Cheers,
- Sunny G.

gabrielau23 09-12-2012 00:00

Re: Final month preparations
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Selavko (Post 1199914)
120 pounds with battery and bumpers! Thats impressive:p

Well, actually, 120.0 withOUT Battery and bumpers.
Robot Weight (<= 120lbs excluding bumpers, and battery) <R03>
We were that close.

z_beeblebrox 09-12-2012 22:25

Re: Final month preparations
 
We're fundraising, getting ready to move into our build space, and also working on a couple of engineering projects. We are entering two robots in Vex this weekend and also building a really cool practice FRC drivetrain. It is almost entirely made of Home Depot wood and parts from last year's robot and can support 6 or 8 4" to 8" wheels in omni corners or dropped center configuration. It will be used for testing mechanisms and software for next year's robot and for driver practice.

Tom Line 09-12-2012 22:39

Re: Final month preparations
 
Tonight we inventoried all our electrical components, down to the last jumper and pwm cable.

We had a 2 hour meeting tonight with mentors and team captains to discuss what new tools we need: it looks like we'll be getting a belt sander / disc sander table combo and a pneumatic riveter. We're also ordering some new components to stress test them before we're confident enough to put them on our robot.

We also discussed our build schedule next year - we have it laid out very specifically.

We discussed all the 'George' jobs early in the season. You always have a lot of extra hands early on, and it's nice to have all your little jobs like crimping wires and pwms to hand to them.

Mechanical inventory and final room cleaning will happen next week.

joelg236 09-12-2012 23:51

Re: Final month preparations
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom Line (Post 1200263)
We discussed all the 'George' jobs early in the season. You always have a lot of extra hands early on, and it's nice to have all your little jobs like crimping wires and pwms to hand to them.

Good tip. Seems like people slowly start to show up less and less as the build season goes on. Probably good to get stuff done while they're still interested.

CalTran 16-12-2012 15:44

Re: Final month preparations
 
Rereading the New Cool before season starts, rapidly finishing up our off season prototypes, prebuilding a practice modular chassis for any type of drivebase, and redoing our robot cart so it will soon be a robot cart and a minicart.


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