New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Hey everyone. Cooler Master is getting our feet wet this year with FIRST. Being new to the scene we were excited to see how devoted everyone was to their teams and builds.
Since this is our rookie year, we thought the best thing to do was work with some local FIRST teams to learn the ropes. Each team has their own blog and posts updates about their progress. All of these teams will be at the L.A. Regional in March so if your group is attending feel free to stop by the Cooler Master booth and say hi. Hopefully next year we can expand our reach and help out a few more groups.

Robodox 599 – https://robodox599blog.wordpress.com/
Bagel Bytes 702 – https://bagelbytes702.wordpress.com/
Metalcrafters 207 – https://metalcrafters207.wordpress.com/
The Da Vinci Coders 5510 – https://thedavincicoders5510.wordpress.com/

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

This is awesome. As someone who's also involved in the performance computing community, it's great to see companies like you guys and NVIDIA getting involved in FIRST. Thanks for the support!

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Do I see mechanical keyboards being in every KOP next year? A man can dream...

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Cool stuff! As a PC enthusiast myself I love the fact that hardware makers are supporting FRC.

Greatest thing so far was the Nvidia quadro k4000 last year in first choice for only 100 credits.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Our ignorance is going to show...

What is a KOP?

Also, we are trying to work out some cool stuff just for FIRST members, stay tuned.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Kit of Parts.

More specifically, the box(es) of parts given by FIRST to teams to build a robot with. Includes FIRST Choice (items picked by the teams via a lottery-like system) and product/vendor vouchers.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Here's the info on donating things to FIRST for inclusion in the KOP/FIRST Choice: http://www.firstinspires.org/node/3646

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Awesome, glad you guys are joining us! I'm a rookie on my team, too. Rookies unite!

:p

I wish you the best of luck, and trust me, once you start Robotics, you'll never want to stop! (I'm saying this and it's my FIRST year.)

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Here is an update for everyone:

We now have a landing page for our teams, including one from Europe!
http://us.coolermaster.com/firstrobotics/

Check it out and let us know what you think. Is this something that you would all like to see us expand in the future? What are some ways companies can be more supportive or help groups like FIRST teams?

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

I wish you guys had a turbine or squirrel cage fan for high static pressure, cause we potentially have an application for one, but alas...

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Aww yeah! :cool:

As Team Rembrandts we're honored to work with Cooler Master this year, proudly we can announce we're working on a new website and looking into opportunities with Cooler Master in Eindhoven.

We're going to test the MasterGel (http://www.cmstore.eu/cooling/therma...stergel-maker/) this week. Applying this to a CIM motor + CIM Cooler/Heatsink and see if there is a difference between the MasterGel and standard compound.

To be continued

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

You picked some pretty awesome teams to get to know FIRST thru!

Do you manufacture parts in Chino?

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Well, we can't help you with a squirrel cage. Currently we just let the critters run free around the office...

We do have an air pressure fan that is new you might be able to use for something though: http://us.coolermaster.com/product/D...P120PWMPE.html

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Let us know what you find out! For those of you not in the EU this is the product they are referring to: http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/...stergel-maker/

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

We do not. Chino is mainly an office and warehouse where we handle shipments and warranty/RMA claims.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

We might try frankensteining that if our other ideas don't pan out. Can't use it as-is since it wasn't ever part of an FRC kit, but I'm sure we could figure out how to attach the blade to something like the AndyMark 775 motor. At something closer to 5800 RPM, it might give us the right balance of air flow and static pressure. I'm told that our current prototyping has determined that a hair-dryer on cool is not good enough, a leaf blower is overkill, and a standard cooling fan is also inadequate.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

As far as I was aware the only fans that could be aboard the robot were fans from the Kit of Parts? Am I mistaken? We are interested in more high-powered cooling solutions for our robot and could use something better than the 'normal' computer fans.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Fans from any former KoP or available on FIRSTChoice are legal for any use. They're all pretty standard cooling fans, though. We're looking for higher pressure, high airflow solutions for an auxiliary system, but they might be useful for cooling as well, provided you're willing to dump a reasonable amount of amps into cooling. We're looking at something like this: 540 motor turbine blower. Trick is getting it printed. It looks like the current design requires support, so I'll have to print it at work. Still, I imagine you could turn that into a reasonably excessive cooling solution with some ducting.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

What about just using a heat-sink in addition to a fan? Some of our most successful CPU coolers use that combo and it works really well.

In either case, I am sure we will see lots of creative solutions. I'm so impressed with the ingenuity of all these groups.


EDIT:
Just thought of something... what about a small shop-vac? I think the smaller ones put out a ton of airflow.

Very interesting. I prefer icdiamond myself but cooler master makes some nice stuff. The day frc is made for me is when people start braiding their cables and watercooling their robo Rio's.

We have a small cramped electrical board this year as we are a low bar bot so, I might throw in a Noctua nff12 or 2 in there just for fun.
Very interesting. I prefer icdiamond myself but cooler master makes some nice stuff. The day frc is made for me is when people start braiding their cables and watercooling their robo Rio's.

We have a small cramped electrical board this year as we are a low bar bot,

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

The problem is you would have to replace the motor in the shop-vac with a FRC legal motor.

In case you don't know (and if you don't, that's ok! Awesome to see more companies get interested in FIRST. I'm sure we can all help you get caught up to speed with rules haha), there is a specific list of motors that are allowed to be on the robot. The same applies to most fans, unless they are integrated with a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) item (some of the speed controllers, used to control the motors had a built in fan), can't be on the robot. Except for ones that were provided in the Kit of Parts.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Lots of great info! Maybe next year we can get in the KOP.

Our sponsored groups are utilizing most of our stuff in their back end planning such as pc's running solid works, cnc milling, etc. Personally, we are just honored to be a part of all this.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Do you plan on expanding to more teams after this season if this seems feasible for CM? Its awesome seeing more computing companies interested in FIRST!

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

This is our test year. We didn't even know this was a thing until one of the coaches posted a message to our reddit page. From there, it just kind of kept growing into what you see today.

We are a maker company and anything we can do to support other makers is something we want to be a part of. I can't tell you what our plans will be for next year but I will say this: based on the hype around the office about these groups I do not see this getting smaller. We are excited to see what people do with our stuff. If that means building a robot to throw balls at a castle, we are all for it. The effort I have seen from visiting the classrooms is astronomical. I see the value and of course, I am excited when someone mentions our products in a positive light.

We are also trying our hardest to integrate with the culture of FIRST. If anyone is coming to the L.A. Regional you will see that we have done our homework as best we can for rookies. We will have Cooler Master buttons for everyone to add to their collection as well as raffles and giveaways. In my meeting with FIRST we were told a lot of booths give out pens and keychains. That simply wont cut it for us. We know you can all use a pen but we think you could use some gear even more. Trust me when I say that we WILL be giving out some legit awesome stuff *cough* keyboards *cough* including a special product that wont even be out until AFTER the competition. And for those that aren't lucky enough to snag something in person we will have a special section of our store just for FIRST members.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Hey, just for grins... You guys aren't considering dropping by the Orange County Regional as well, are you? (I'll be at both, just wondering.) It's 3 weeks later, and probably a few miles closer than L.A. to you.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

What are the deets? I'll see if it's in our budget and if we have the manpower.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Any chance for those of us on the other coast to purchase one of those buttons? :p

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Better yet, anyone not in California?

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

http://www.firstinspires.org/team-ev...event?id=17437

That should get you started. I think some of the planning committee cruise the forums, too.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

If we have leftovers we will put them in the CM Store. I think we ordered 500. If there is enough of a demand expressed here we can up that order, I'm sure.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Sounds cool Brandon, I'd love to snag one if theres any left.

Side note: I wonder how well a Hyper 212 Evo will cool a CIM motor... (Or the new access point we use this year, that thing gets hotter than I thought it would...)

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

I have a couple laying around. Should I test :]

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Sure, why not! Obviously it wouldn't be practical, but I could see teams needing to cool down the motors between matches during semifinals and finals. :P

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Alright. Ill have it done this weekend.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

I don't know if it would work that well. The 212 Evo works best against a flat surface.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

The surface area would be decent on a CIM. Applying the right amount of thermal compound is the issue. Can't wait until you guys manufacture the CIM waterblock.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

The back of the CIM motor is (mostly) flat, however most of the heat isn't dissipated from that location, but it does get hot after a lot of continuous use. Some thermal paste will definitely help instead of direct contact.

Anecdotal story: Last year the students were doing a demo, for several hours. Eventually the performance of the robot was quite abysmal. I noticed the motors were hot...REALLY hot. I took some damp paper towels and wrapped them around the motor...you could hear the water sizzle and evaporate off. So maybe CoolerMaster could make a water cooling block for CIM motors! :rolleyes:

Edit: I see that Samuel had the same idea as me, and we posted at the same time. :P

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

You got sniped

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Well let's think about this. The motor gets hot and it needs a way of dissipating the heat. I can think of 2 ways I would try to go about this based on skill, time, space, etc.

1- Take a heat-sink similar to this and drill out the middle. Slide it on the motor. The fins will carry heat away. Not the greatest, but it will help. http://www.coolermaster.com/cooling/.../x-dream-p115/

2- Take a liquid cooling system (closed loop) and disconnect the part that goes against the processor. Swap it out for a hallow cylindrical sleeve that fits around the motor. This would definitely take some effort and custom parts but it sounds like it might be worth it if it can be used every year.

Keep in mind I have never built a robot and have no idea what I'm talking about :P

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Actually, your first idea kind of exists: http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2865.htm

If you can blow a fan over them, they are more effective.

As for your 2nd idea, maybe all teams should bring their gaming PCs with a custom water loop, and put it in the pits and cool the motors down between matches! :P

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Well, you don't need a PC to run a water loop.

No you do not. Really all you need is a power source for the pump and fans. Which run over pwm/3pin something the robo Rio has. Water cooling robots is totally overkill but I custom loop would look sick. If anyone wants to sctuslly do this contact me and ill give you a good price on parts. Also if anyone needs a bitfenix prodigy m ill give it to you for free plus s&h I need to get rid of it.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Is anyone using Cooler Master products this year with their team? I'd love to hear about it and how it has worked out for you.

We have 212 evos in all of our pcs.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

My personal pc, often used by my team for cad, was made using a CM case and uses a 212 to cool the cpu.
Has cm considered attending the world championship? You'd be able to meet teams from every corner of FRC there and be able to learn quite a lot about the ethos of FIRST.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

We have one team from the EU (Team Rembrandts) this year that is trying to qualify for world championships. I think that as we see how everything works out you can expect us to make a larger impact. In the meantime, we are hoping that the local groups we have sponsored provide a level of insight to other groups as well as our fans that haven't been exposed to FIRST.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Not sure if this was a FRC team, but I remember seeing this a while ago: http://imgur.com/gallery/EpwQlpo

All they said it was a high school robotics team. May not specifically be FRC though.

Edit: After reading through the comments in that thread, it IS a FRC team. No idea what # though.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

That is Robodox 599. They are one of our sponsored teams this year. We are serious when we say that we are committed to helping out our teams.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

As a general note about this, I'm pretty sure under FRC rules you wouldn't be able to use either of these on a competition robot per R9 in the manual.

That said, I'm glad to see Cooler Master jumping on board with FRC, you guys make some great PC components (of which I use several) and I'm excited to see how you'll be working with the community going forward. :)

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Who on here is going to be at the L.A. Regional? Anything you would like to see at our booth?

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Although I won't be at the LA Regional, I'll still throw in some things about your booth. Feel free to ignore it, since I won't be there.

When I was a student, some of the coolest booths I saw were the ones that had products in action/demos to use, or had some cool details about the product. Sketches, CAD, cross-sections, etc.

Your audience isn't just PC enthusiasts, it's a group of engineers/STEM students. Most of us won't shy away from technical diagrams; they actually look cool and interesting to most of us! I imagine a water loop running, with some technical drawings (not your trade secrets, but general things) to also look at would be cool.

Material talking about how CoolerMaster needs mechanical/electrical/etc engineers in the future is always a plus.

Of course, mentioning how you have helped those 4 teams is always a good idea. Showing community involvement always goes over well.

Those are just my opinions, from when I was a student. Take them with a grain of NaCl.


PS- Maybe a team can lend you a spare motor and you can watercool it. :rolleyes:

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Might be a couple of 1197 mentors dropping by. On asking them that question, the general answer can be summed up as: "cool stuff".

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

We will make sure to have some cool things to interact with. We are limited to 10x10 so it's hard to cram it all in there. We are still finalizing the booth but when it's set up we will take pics and post them. I think everyone is going to dig our raffles and swag.

We also bumped up the button order so those of you not at the competition can still get one from our store.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

10' x 10'? That just happens to be the size of the team's pits for the robots...

And
teams
have put
lots
of things
in them before.

And they had to have room for working on the robot!


Hopefully those links will give you a few ideas of how to maximize your space.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

If you look closely enough, you can see "ROBODOX" in the top left corner of the white board in the background ;)

In other news, Welcome Brandon! We are really putting those cases through their paces, with two running CAD full time and the third being used as a programming workstation.

Sad to hear that we can't use the extra JetFlo fans on the robot, though.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

I have to say, those look pretty sweet.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Maybe you can just use them as regular fans in the pit? It's got to be hot down there with all those people packed in.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Good idea! I'll get the kids to figure something out. Those have insane air flow, so it should work!

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Just wanted to share a cool video Metalcrafers 207 uploaded today! Love the slo-mo effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iP8-dvjRbE

To read the whole blog entry, click here: https://metalcrafters207.wordpress.c...-big-progress/

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

We listed some buttons in our store today. There is only a limited quantity. If we have more after the show we will restock it.

http://www.cmstore-usa.com/cooler-master-swag-button/


We are trying to expand the merchandise selection of the store, what other items would you like to see?

Also, stay tuned for a "test" sale of keyboards for FIRST participants.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Cool, just ordered one.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Matt,

Since you were the first to order we packed you some extra stuff! You will be getting our Totes Awesome Tote Bag and retro Cooler Master lanyard in addition to the Swag Button.

Thanks!

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Brandon,

Just received the items with the CoolerMaster stuff inside. Pretty cool if I might say... I now have a section on my desk/room for CoolerMaster items...laptop cooling pad, button, bag, and lanyard.

I look forward to watching the LA Regional next week, hope you guys over at CM enjoy entering the fray of FRC as well.

New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Awesome! Our team loves our Hyper 212 Evo and Cooler Master case fans. We use them to cool our FX-8350 powered CAD workstation. We sit around 32 degrees Celsius at idle, which is pretty good for that beast of a CPU. Attached is a photo of all the components before we built the workstation.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

:ahh: Whaaat! Jeez, I wish they did that this year. We're running with a donated original Quadro 600 right now. A K4000 for 100 credits is amazing!

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Since we are a week out I decided to share some stuff with everyone. The LA Regional team has been AMAZING helping us out getting organized since we are new to this type of event.

Here are SOME of the boxes we are bringing of raffle prizes and giveaways:





We will also have buttons and lanyards!

If you wont be at the show, don't worry. We will be having a HUGE sale for all FIRST members through our online store and I will be sure to post the code here for everyone. This is not open to the public and will not be advertised. As a sneak peak of what will be offered...

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Not gonna lie, I am now super jealous of teams going to the LA regional. :rolleyes:

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Ok, we are opening up some sale pricing a day early for the Chief Delphi forum members.



http://www.cmstore-usa.com/first
CODE: CMROBOT

Please keep this within the FIRST community as we have a limited amount and do not want this to be open to the general public.

New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Where do we get a code to purchase things? Or is it just teams that were at the LA regional?

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

He posted it:
CODE: CMROBOT

Thanks! It's not showing up on Tapatalk apparently.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

All sale items are open to any FIRST group. Also, if there is an item you want me to see if can work a deal with, let me know.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Great first day! Totally loved seeing all the robots. We gave out a ton of stuff today and tomorrow will be even better.

If you didn't stop by the booth come say hi!

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

If you aren't a fan of ours on Facebook or Twitter you might want to join us for the next few days. Here is Macy from team 5510 telling us how the practice match went.

https://www.facebook.com/CoolerMaste...0474841993978/

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

I just wanted to say how amazing the LA Regional was for us. We met so many amazing people and learned a ton about FIRST. Our sponsored teams did amazing! I have give props to 599, 702, and 207 for really showing what they are made of. A special congrats goes to team 5510 though, they ranked 4th!

We are proud of all of our teams and I am glad that we could help them out.

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

Glad you guys at CoolerMaster enjoyed the regional and FRC experience. Hope the crazy excitement didn't you guys off. :p

Re: New to FRC- You guys are all amazing!
 

We will have some teams at the Ventura regional this weekend. You might see us walking around with a camera, say hi and claim a button!

btw, we extended our keyboard sale for first members since we have groups at ventura and champs now.