Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Team 254, NASA Ames Robotics "The Cheesy Poofs", proudly presents our 2016 robot: Dropshot.



Dropshot will compete at the Central Valley Regional, Silicon Valley Regional, and FIRST Championship.

Team 254 is sponsored by NASA Ames Research Center, Google, AMEX Plating, Innovation First International, Apple, Orange Vise Company, BAE Systems, Qualcomm, Brin Wojcicki Foundation, Cisco, World Metal Finishing, Applied Welding, West Coast Products, Dropbox, Attivo Networks, HP, Vivid-Hosting, Alien Technology, The Wong Family, The Yun Family, The Magarelli Family, The Kasle Family, and Bellarmine College Preparatory.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Mindblowing as usual. I didn't count the shots, but that is a lot of scoring in a short period of time...

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

No full robot pic? You always gotta leave us wondering.

Great work as always happy to see a video reveal again!

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

7 in 40s

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

#TeamBenchGrinder

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Is that a turret?

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

#mightactuallybeabenchgrinder

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I expected nothing less!

Can't wait to see it in action at CVR and SVR.

EDIT:: Oh yes, 254 is video trackin' if I'm not mistaken. This is a step in a direction you usually don't go. NICE!!!

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

IIRC this will be the Poofs first FRC robot with a turret. I'm excited to see their spin on it.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Assuming yes, considering the possibility of them making a swerve is pretty low to 0.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

"Anything that moves sideways is a waste of time."

-Tom Bottiglieri 254

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I feel like it's a turret that is constantly aiming at the goal, so they can shoot as soon as they stop moving.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

But that was 7 shots w/o ever crossing the defenses. So those same 7 would still take considerably longer to do in a real manner.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I noticed near the end, that their turret would "lock" onto the target that was closest. Look's like they shouldn't have an issue from shooting anywhere in the courtyard.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I pray for those at CVR this weekend.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Interestingly there are four #25 chain runs in the bottom right corner with the sprockets vertical, the chain moves very quickly whenever the the camera seems to move.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

"spin" "turret"
Pun Intended?

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

That's the craziest auton I've ever seen

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Wot

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

That castle tower doesn't have a hanging/climbing bar on it. Interesting.

I had no idea there would be this many turret bots this year. I like the auto tracking yours does.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

#7ballauto

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Dropshot shot a release video of itself. Efficient use of resources.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

The video deserves a perfect 5/7

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Wow!

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Great video, I enjoyed the use of the long take. Really shows the accuracy with 7/7 high goals scored.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I just enjoy that this was posted at 2:54 ;)

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I think this leaves us with more questions than answers. Can't wait to watch this thing compete!

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

27 seconds you can see the team version of the hanging bar. Don't rule out a climber.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I see that now. You are correct.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I see what you did there.

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There's something wrong with the robot. It does a head twitch.:p

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Why?

This game is a leveling game. I think many bots will do well , some not so well and many will break down due to the game itself. We had major system malfunctions and repairs already like shooter sheering bolts and then shaft breaking in two, sheer timing luck we had time to do major repairs on the fly. Not scared of any and actually very excited to see them all in real life . Its like a west coast mini championship..as was said earlier the alliance that wins it earns it..like it should be. We tend to build fairly robust bots ours has broken so far 6 separate times, twice in practice and four times in competition.

My advice to all teams...bring everything spare part wise and harden those connections on Friday. Every connection and every spare part. Order more today overnight. Yes you need it. If defense is played as in San Diego even more parts.

Would much rather go into a high level competition than a lower one. Looking forward to it, we had an absolute blast in Ventura last year similar high end field. Better bots means potentially better alliance partners too. Its all relative.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

It might also be there to throw us off. I imagine that they would want to replicate the actual field as best as possible for 2 minute practice matches.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

What type of camera/sensor are you using for that auto target tracking? Ours blurs terribly when we move our turret as quickly as you guys do.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

...didn't realize it was such a sensitive topic. Next time I'll refrain from somewhat whimsical responses.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Don't worry I will pray for your next whimsical response.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Sorry I took it wrong, but I heard same comment in 2-ball auto thread too. Yes ,these teams are awesome amazing engineering so glad to see them live. They are good for a reason.

I just like all teams being given a chance, especially in a game that tends to destroy bots. Just making it through 8,9 or 17 games is a challenge. Drive trains broke in eliminations in San Diego twice on one alliance with very good perennial favorite teams= 1 bot versus 3 they lost bad . So nothing is guaranteed. This is not like last year. Its rough out there. Many teams underestimated the wear and tear this year..including us. Its ridiculous and I'm sure the high end teams have strong bots . I hope no one breaks down but they will. Even 179 had issues in week 0.5. Lots of bumpers and parts all over the field of play in SD. Also defenses missing walls during matches.

A rookie was #1 in SD... led throughout. As an amazing breacher.

Just trying to pass along some knowledge of what its like for all teams to be ready in weeks 2-6 and through St Louis. It is a real fun year though the game play is amazing. They nailed it.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

That seems like a low exit angle but I could be wrong, pov is tricky.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

It's very possible they still believe that. :o

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Yeah, the vision aligning at the end seems too snappy to be from a drivetrain, I'd say it's almost certainly some kind of turret.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

No, that's EJ's chin-up bar. Gotta get those pumps in.

I believe they have the team version hanging bar.

That being said, looks to be an incredible robot. Looking forward to competing with you guys at SVR and seeing this amazing thing in person!

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

What I've learned from this thread: 254 has a turreted, bench grinder shooter, and most probably hangs (as evident by their CLEEEAAAARLY visible team version hanging bar). Also, sideways is a waste of time.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

At 33 seconds in the video you can see two small arms pop out of the front of the robot. Let us all make crazy, unrealistic predictions as to what those are.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

:ahh:

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Out of curiosity, what are you using for you vision tracking?

In this thread, Tom mentioned you had been having bad luck with the Jetson, did you end up using it, the RoboRio, or something else?
What camera did you choose for image acquisition?

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I'm actually sure this is a swerve/omnidirectional drive and that there's no turret involved here. It's pretty obvious that the ball pickup is in the back, so if I had to guess I'd say that they use a pivoted roller to suck balls in from whatever intake mechanism they have (maybe the roller is combined with the intake too, I could see that) and then accelerate the ball linearly past those two flywheels.

Maybe a cheesy pof could check in here to tell me if I'm right?

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

My main indication that this is a turret is the extremely quick turning of the aim when it changes which goal it locks onto (at the end).
From my experience with programming and driving swerve, it would never change angle that quicky and accurately, especially while strafing.
Also you can kind of tell that the drive is moving in a tank-like manner.

The other reason is that 254 has a history of hating things that move sideways.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Thirdly, the 2016 game hates swerve.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Pure swerve at least. :rolleyes:

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After some reflection I do think you're right- at 20s you can see the black framing rotate with respect to the blue, which would only make sense with a turret.

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16 doesn't count. I'm 90% confident they developed some sort of magical hover drivetrain years ago and have been making swerve to cover it up.

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Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

This is a beautiful robot.

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Cool

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Now we know why there was no scaling pole on the castle tower.
Unless I'm missing something....

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Also, Cheval and Portcullis? They could probably just ram the portcullis for a while if they wanted to get through.
Looks like they don't plan to focus on defenses though.

Edit: Looks like Mecanums might make their return to Einstein if 118 and 254 have anything to say about it.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

According to their website, they are only weighing in at 94.5 lbs at the moment, thats easily enough weight to add something else....

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Woah that exit angle looks super low...

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I see an unused bearing hole. Something's missing...

I notice you finally have blue clevises. Did you anodize the red ones you've used in the past or did you find a source for blue ones? The blue is a slightly different color so I'm assuming you found them somewhere.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Hmm I wonder what that bracket above the 5 with the bored out hole and the standard looking bolt pattern around it is for? I wonder what this robot is missing.... :rolleyes:

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Beautiful robot. Glad to see some powerhouse teams with turret+actuating hood shooters. We did the same thing, although it's definitely not as well packaged as Dropshot. Good luck at SVR!

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

There is a gearbox with at least one 775pro that doesn’t seem to be doing much…it seems a reasonably high reduction as well.

If you look closely through the smoked polycarbonate, there is a run of what looks like #25 chain which seems to be coming from somewhere near one of the drive gearboxes, this could potentially be the output from a Power Take Off( PTO), which the Poofs have had experience using to climb in different games.

Also on their website it says the robot is "94.5 lbs (as pictured)" so 94.5 lbs may not be the final weight after some other things have been added:)

Also here is a higher resolution image of the robot, to assist with over analysis:
https://media.team254.com/2016/03/86bb0776-2016.jpg

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Is that a... Nexus 5? You can see the headphone jack and mic.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Yep, it certainly looks like one( I have a nexus 5), that would certainly be plenty of processing power for fast vision tracking and target identification

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

;)

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Robot gets bored during practice, wanted to listen to some podcasts.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

gotta disable that bluetooth tho

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We hook ours up to the big screen during off time. Makes perfect sense to me!

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Making great design choices is the key. They have successfully developed a great strategy by understanding this year's game like always. Congratulations !

Consequently, does anyone know about another team with similar mechanisms. I saw few robots with the high goal lock in their programs but the most identical is the Canadian Team 3386 with Minotaur. Check it out on Youtube :yikes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEZKnE1kZTU

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Ok Jared,
spill the beans....why?
I'm prepared to pay for the latest and greatest if I have to.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I wouldn't be surprised if 254 had a couple tricks up their sleeves. Nonetheless another very impressive robot. Well done.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I never, ever thought I would see mecanum wheels on a 254 robot. Guess there's a first time for everything.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

According to the current members of the team, 2410'll be debuting "the same thing" at Greater Kansas City tomorrow. I'll update on whether it is the same.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Just saw the photo. That thing looks crazy! The turret in the middle though...

And of course, posted at 2:54pm :)

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Beans Jared!

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Calling a 33 type climb this year, refence this video. Telescoping arms similar to their 2013 climb.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

If I may ask, where'd you get mecanums that small?

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Mini mecanums are available from a few places.

Sparkfun 2.125in https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11578

Nexus 60mm http://www.nexusrobot.com/product.php?id_product=122

Not sure which ones 254 is using but if you search around enough you can some.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Are you running a new form of drive code? Your robot appears to be driving even more smoothly than your previous robots, the drive never seems to "twitch!"

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

That's just Christian being Christian.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Team 5030 is going to start vision tracking the goals for their next competition and we were wondering how many LED rings you guys have for vision tracking? It seems to bright for just one LED ring.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

You don't necessarily need to use a led ring, we added 6 high power green 5mm LEDs(with resistors running of 5v) and it has really improved the illumination of the target over just 1 led ring

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I think I'm going blind (or my brain doesn't want me to see them) because I can't find the mecanums on this robot.

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They are on one of the intake rollers.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

I can't believe I missed that. Pretty cool system though, that's for sure. I can't wait to see what sort of hanger they break out, I'd imagine it'd be packaged in a size similar to the one from 2013.

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Well they have a fair amount of experience climbing with a Power Take-off(PTO) and there is a suspicious chain run, coming from around the drive gearbox and going somewhere, yes I can't wait to find out either:)

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

anyone else see the "addition"?
https://imgur.com/ZdTk1fd

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

That looks familiar to another Cali team.

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They get to have two radios!?!:eek:

Re: Team 254 Presents: Dropshot
 

Yeah it also looks super legit...

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Do they climb yet?

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They had their climber in their pit, but I don't know if they will be adding it for SVR.