Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Team 3481, the Brandeis High School Bronc Botz, out of San Antonio, Texas would like to present their Ultimate Ascent robot, Twister.









We will be attending the Lone Star and Alamo regionals this year. Please post any questions you have; I'll be glad to respond. There is still a lot of work to be done, but this should be a great year.

Cheers,
Parker Francis

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Wow this looks really cool! Is the elevator in the back meant for climbing?

I really like the colors :)

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

This does look like a really cool robot and it will be cool to see this play with both robots from 1592 and 801. Do you guys have a video of it in play?

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Not ready to release yet... still working on twin practice bot to perfect subsystems/programming/practicing... LOADS of work to do...

Our team name should probably be "Bronc _Iterating_ Botz"...

Looking forward to meeting you at Alamo! ;-)

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Are you using 8 CIM's?

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Looks like a 6 Cim drive, 2 Mini-CIM shooter, and 2 BAG intake.

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Gregor has it correct. The lift in the back is for climbing, however we are still working on the hook design, so you don't see those in the image.

-Parker

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Parker,
Michael,

Congrats on another fantastic looking robot, color matched shooter wheels and all. It's missing underglow though... :rolleyes:


Wish y'all were able to make it back to Dallas this year but at least we get to compete at Lonestar together. Looking forward to it!

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Parker, you and the rest of team put together an awesome looking robot. I can't wait to see it up close next week. We're pit neighbors too.

Are you shifting with the 6 CIMs or is it a power takeoff for the climber?

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

I like it.

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

#TeamElevator!

-RC

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

I think I found my new favorite bot this year. Can't wait to see this in person at LSR. Good luck this year guys, I'll be rooting for y'all!!

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Thanks for all of the compliments, guys.

Allen, it is indeed a PTO from the 6 CIM drive. We're running a single speed drive due to this. I don't have any good pictures, so you'll have to come by to see the mess that is that PTO set up.

-Parker

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Congrats on a very unique and intricate design.
So many things are happening on this robot !

I'll start with a shooter question,

Mini-cim shooter gear ratio, what gears did you use ?

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

I gotta say... I *really* wanted to come up again to scrimmage with you guys this season. I hope JVN and Jeff see this message... we just have so much catching up to do. Who knows... maybe we can after Lonestar. If we get our act together next season, I would like to keep that tradition going if possible.

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Hey we're next door ;) you need a full alliance to scrimmage!

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Looks great, Parker - can't wait to see it play next week.

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Michael & Parker, looks killer! Didn't expect anything less. Good luck.

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

THANK YOU for all the kind words and observations...

We're doing the iterations-dance AS FAST as we can on the twin... and we certainly wish Spring Break was BEFORE Lone Star not right after.

We _never_ give up... we _never_ surrender... we're ALWAYS learning, and ALWAYS improving... ;-)

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Andrew,

We're running at 1:2 on the front wheel, and ~1:1.2 on the slower wheel. This was all based off of our prototype. We will continue to tweak speeds with software, so hopefully that gives us some more variability.

Cheers,
Parker

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

I'm getting some questions about the helix/lift subsystem (aka Felix the Helix)...

And YES, some of the "magic" is missing from the center of the helix... we're STILL iterating the spindle on the twin...

VERY cool visual when those discs spin-up the helix to the feeder (bucket)... ;-)

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Thanks Parker ! We have switched to direct driving mini-cims in prototyping on our practice robot shooter. We have not quite figured out a great way to swap in a geared up mini-cim system into our shooter.

We feel that your shooter gear ratio has just the right amount of speed/torque to really launch the frisbees.

Have you tried doing full court shots ?

On a sidenote... I wonder if 148 has any shared design features as 3481 ?... it would be nice if 148 released a picture or something...

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Andrew, we've got Grayhill encoders all over the bot, two on the shooter. Grayhill is new to us this year and we're currently in the process of tweaking different speeds AND wheel durometers on the twin (Yes... I used the word durometer... LOL) to get max distance... so we'll get back to you on max distance or we'll show you next week.

On sharing ANY 148 design features between our bots... I believe the only thing we may share is sheet metal construction and awesome powder coating... AND a chit-load of VEXPro parts.

I don't know A THING about their bot this year. MAYBE Parker does, but he has EXTREME integrity on secrets... and darn it, arm-twisting DOESN'T work with him... LOL

I'm one of 148's BIGGEST fans (in more ways than one) and I'm excited to see next Thursday WHAT they've built!

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Hey all,

I just wanted to let those who were curious about our hook design see why they weren't included on the image. It may be a little late, but here they are.

Many many kudos to James Tonthat and 1477 for helping me resolve this design and even manufacturing them for us. We'd be in bad shape without their help.



Cheers and good luck,
Parker Francis

Re: Bronc Botz Team 3481 '13 - Twister
 

Also thanks to 1429 for providing the shop and the material. :)