610 Presents: Stingray
 

Hi CD,

Over the past 3 days, Jordan Grant and Jacob Kachura, two seniors on 610, have worked tirelessly to produce this reveal video for our robot, Stingray.

EDIT: New link with minor modifications

Lots of thanks to our mentors for their patience and perseverance over the past six weeks. We will be competing at GTRW, North Bay, and Championships (pre-qualifying from last season).

Feel free to ask questions, we will answer them all this time.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

video wont play :(

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

That intake is one of the best I've seen so far.

Very impressive everything, including a great video and a great song!

Best of luck! :)

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Most impressive!

Can you provide some insight as to why chose your collector design over a BoomDone collector?

Is your catapult cocked and released with a 550 and a giant Cam?

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

interesting song choice for a school based team.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

So far, this is my favorite robot that I've seen from the reveal videos. Very creative intake design.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Seconded. This is a video, like 118's last year, that I could picture being shown on MTV. Great work.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Welp, there back.

Great bot, I love the huge cradle you have on the catapult. I'm assuming it catches very well because of it. Looks like it has solid drivers as usual.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

That's exactly how our catapult is fired, although it is geared down quite a bit, as you might expect.

As for your first question, we found that our current style of intake is incredibly effective. It might not be that clear from the video, but if the ball even barely touches our intake rollers from almost any direction, it's in the robot. It may look different from the BoomDone design, but I can pretty much guarantee that it is just as effective, if not more so.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Why the wrists? I am not seeing any benefit to being able to be either straight or angled. Judging from other robots, both work just as effectively. Could you just not decide?

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

The angled configuration is used for picking up the ball and carrying it around without letting it fall out of the robot. The straight configuration is mostly used when shooting so the intake doesn't interfere with the ball or the catapult, but we also use it when catching.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

I really dig the fingers, clever intake mechanism!

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

We actually call them the "eyebrows". What we call the "fingers" are small attachments at the top of the shooter that allow us to modify the angle and length of the shooter without modifying the entire shooter itself.

It's easiest to see them in the black and white shot at 2:02/2:03 on the right side of the shooter. They're the transparent bits that stick out the end.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

It was a conscious decision. The benefits include pinching action to hold ball securely and the ability to shoot between between the intake arms without exposing them outside the bumper. I'm sure a detailed closeup of the intake arms will be coming soon, hopefully with the different design revisions. They are designed to be hit or sideswiped and pop back into shape as well as acquire the ball quickly.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Great looking robot and video! Looks like it has had time for tuning and practicing... which I'm sure will be as big a difference-maker as ever! Best of luck this season!

We enjoyed the chance you guys got to come down to GSR for its final year... it is a shame that the district model currently closes off borders!

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Well, they censored it pretty well.

Seriously, that's a verrrrry nice robot. You can tell just from the video the care and precision that went into every aspect.

Can't wait to see it at competition.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Are you guys using CAN for control again this year?

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Unlike in previous years, we have zero Jaguars or Victors this year. We only have Talons.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Its ok because that is the version they play on the airwaves! Plus who doesn't like Kanye? :ahh: Great robot also.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Me.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

I love the robot and the video, both are amazing.

In addition to all the praise others have already said about the robot, I just wanted to say that your team branding is excellent. Good team branding is something I don't think I see enough of in FIRST and it really makes and impact. I think it's often something that isn't noticed and overlooked but it makes a big difference in how professional a team appears and I wanted to point it out and appreciate it.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Hey, even Kanye himself agrees!

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Awesome robot, whoever did your bumper numbers deserves a lot of credit.

What inside your collector rollers (motor, gearbox, etc). Is there a back bearing to support that end of the roller?

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Is your code publicly available?

EDIT: Nevermind, found it here:
https://code.google.com/p/robotics61...%2Fcompetition

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

I am very impressed with the ball collector, that's excellent attention to detail showing why 610 competes at a very high level year in and year out. Excellent production on the video side of things as well.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

that intake is awesome, guys! job well done, and definitely an inspiring robot from the defending world champs. best of luck to you guys this year and hopefully we'll see each other again at championships.

...although, one thing that wasn't shown in the video is a hint at what your emergency blocker will be this year. personally, i'm expecting something covered completely in flowers this time...it's just natural evolution. last year, witnessing it first hand, there was obviously plenty of room for more on that thing. ;)

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

You know I was wondering the same thing through out the entire video... Where are the feather boas?? I mean all world class teams use feather boas right? :p

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

lol. funny you should mention that. in typical late season build session conversation, we were joking about how awesome our intake would look lined in a feather boa...i think that idea needs to be revisited now. ;)

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

We outsourced the bumper numbers to a local print shop and ran the plywood backing through the CNC router. They look pretty sharp and all of the mounting brackets fit the first time.

The rollers are powered by a Banebots motor through a versa planetary. There is an internal disk supporting the back end of the roller.

The boas were added to lighten the mood after being told to perform a defensive roll. I'm sure we'll find something equally as flamboyant to put on this robot. It's already named after a fish...

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Hahaha, I know our team still gets a good chuckle out of that match. :p

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Lol. That's just awesome. If that's the inspiration, I think you'd have to nickname a flamboyant blocker "the flounder". :D

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

You team has a very, very thorough design process.

Now, I wish even more to have hiring and firing authority...

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

One thing I noticed watching this video again that's one of those "why didn't I think of that?" moments? 610 has angled their camera, knowing that they only need to look quickly at one side of the driverstation to know which side is hot.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Can you talk about the process behind making that decision? 610 was very successful running CAN in the past, I'm curious why you would leave it.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

I'm not the best person to answer this question, but my understanding is we moved away from Jaguars because they are huge, and we weren't happy with the built in PID implementation, so there was little incentive to use them. Last year the programmers got much better speed control doing it in software.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Great robot as always guys!

Does anyone happen to know what springs your using on your shooter?

Thanks

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Jaguars are huge in comparison to Victors/Talons. They also seem to be less robust when it comes to surviving the harsh environment of metal shavings we put them through.

Really, the only thing they have going for them is the CAN bus. For 2014's game? Many robots are cramped for space.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Mcmaster carr part number 9654k424 and 94135k62. One of each per side. We have talked about boosting the power a bit, but the shock loading on the catapult has already required redesign of several components to handle the stress. We'll probably play it safe for our first regional.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

I know you guys like to gear your drive conservatively(especially compared to many west coast teams). What did you settle on this year?

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

We're running 5:1 in the gearbox and ~2:1 in the drive rails (24t driving 50t) for an overall of 10.4:1. On 5" wheels this ratio works out to be very similar to last year's 8:1 on 4" wheels.

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

Did you have any methods in place to reduce the risk of tripping the main breaker, such as turning off 2 CIMs, or having the driver back off during pushing, or were you just geared low enough for it not to be an issue? This is a question for both your 2013 and 2014 robots.

Why did you decide on 4 CIM 2 MiniCIM this year as opposed to your 6 CIM last year?

Re: 610 Presents: Stingray
 

As far as I know there was no code action in place to reduce the risk of tripping the main breaker. I can also guarantee the driver never backed off pushing for fear of tripping the main breaker ;). I see queries regarding 6 CIMs and the main breaker all the time but I can honestly say I have never experienced current-related main breaker problems. I'm just guessing our conservative gearing has helped us avoid these issues. I can't speak fully for the 2013 driver but I'm guessing 2013 is a similar story.

This isn't a very good reason but here goes: We only had 4 CIMs that looked up to our standards in our little box o' CIMs so we figured we would just skip the ones with slightly damaged leads and use Mini CIMs instead because why take chances? On the product page it says they can be used interchangeably so we took that and ran with it. We ended up swapping the Mini CIMs with full-size CIMs on bag day night though so I can't comment on how well CIMs + MiniCIMs play together in competition. No gripes about it during practice at least.