pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

How did you manufacture the gear teeth on the turret and the variable angle ball holder? What kind of tolerances were you able to hold?

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

One of our sponsors does laser/water jet cutting for us. The tolerances are pretty tight, but the teeth mesh very nicely with the other gears. The turret did end up having a little bit of slop in the gearbox, but not too bad.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

We've waterjetted many 20 and 24 dp gears over the years at exact size without issue.

254's turret this year was water cut.

148 does a fair amount on laser.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Very interested how this turns out. What drove the decision to make a turret catapult?

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Not only is this catapult on a turret, the ball cradle slides for different shot trajectories...

#TSIMFD

Few things:

1. You guys aren't using it at CCC? Thought this was going to be one of the 3 you all are playing with.

2. How does it intake?

Anyways, this thing is hands-down awesome. Even if it's not done, you should still bring it to CCC so we all can see it in person!

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

We wanted to try some mechanisms that we had never tried before, and the programmers wanted to work more with vision. A lot of the reasoning behind our decisions was "because we can."

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Could we get another picture of the bearing setup on the turret? :)

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

It's the same as what 254 did for season, a 1601-washer-r3-washer-1601 stackup on a #10. This rides on a 1/4" plate (or 3/16" if no washer).

Iteration of what 1323 did in 2012 but w/ smaller bearings.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Looks like 1678 caught a little bit of the small robot fever for the offseason. Can't wait to see some pictures of the completed robot.

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Quick glance told me it was a swerve drive ;)

Looks cool. Interested to see how the intake works.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

1. Not at CCC. We will only be competing with one bot at CCC. Our 2016 Adrian practice bot will be driven by team 299. The rest of our students are volunteering.

2. Intake is mostly assembled, not mounted though. There are other mechanisms still missing as well!

Maybe we'll bring it to CCC, but we have a lot of other stuff to do just to make the event happen!

Thanks,

-Mike

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

That is a very nice looking robot! How is the catapult powered? I don't think I see any pneumatics or elastic tubing. Is it motor driven?

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I'm just curious as to what that thingamabob is in the corner. Were your machinists bored?

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

That's a Turner's Cube.

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Devin's pride and joy.

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The catapult will be powered by both surgical tubing and pneumatic cylinders. We just haven't mounted them yet.

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Looks gorgeous, hopefully one day I can dive into the CAD of this thing.

Gotta ask though, what's with the giant rivets?

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Awesome looking bot! I can't wait to see the final product.

How will you access the electronics for maintenance or repair?

PS. Love the random things in the rest of this photo

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*snip*

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That reasoning has led you this far, and it looks stunning. Did any prototyping in the offseason go into this, or did you perhaps test a catapult during the build season?

I would love to see some more pictures from different angles, or maybe even a video once it is operational :D


+1.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

This robot is absolutely beautiful. I hope y'all will show it off at ccc. I'd love to see it.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

We got those by accident during the season, and are just trying to get rid of them.

The entire turret assembly (and everything on it) can be unbolted from the drivetrain, but the electronics are a huge pain to access.

We did a couple of weeks of prototyping in June, but the rest was done in CAD over the summer. I will upload more pictures when we finish it, along with some other specs.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

With great difficulty and possibly tears :P

The electronics on this bot are pretty crazy, given how small it is. We ended up needing to mount the PCM on the turret, because it won't fit elsewhere.

You're seeing one of the two independent shot adjustment mechanisms ;)

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

My boredom and associated hijinks are the stuff of legend.

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I assume an adjustable hard stop? I don't think the adjustable cradle is enough with a single throw length to get a fender shot, and considering I see what appears to be a mount for spring assist, you'll need/want some kind of Hardstop. Maybe that's what the empty pocket in the plate the catapult rotates around is for? A VP to adjust the throw?

Everytime I've looked at this picture (a lot of times) I've noticed something cooler. My favorite part may be that the catapult is offset by ~30 degrees on the turret to allow for a longer lever arm.

This robot is all about the little details, pun intended.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Yes, there is an adjustable hard stop that uses a custom tiny disc brake. At least that's how I understand it is going to be.

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Has 1678 bought up the world supply of disc brakes? You guys sure do love that stuff :P

I'd love to see this up close (as I'm sure others would as well) so I'm curious if the team would be able to show some of the details that we might not otherwise catch in photos like these. It would be a fantastic learning experience.

Otherwise, wicked cool stuff! Props to the team for the hard work over the summer.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Did you build a functional prototype of the catapult with all these articulations?
I get the feeling that building the prototype would be a major challenge in itself, probably worthy of CAD.

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I'm guessing one of the missing mechanisms is something to hold the ball in the arm cup when driving? Or does the intake do that as well? Can't wait to see the whole thing - please make a release video!

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A release video would be sweet!

This robot is looking awesome I cannot imagine the headaches y'all had fitting everything in a size similar to Mittens, but without the arm. Looking forward to seeing this at Madtown.

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The things that caught my eye are the compact compressor bracket and the wheels.

It looks like you cut openings in the polycarb and then bent it.
How did you bend it? Was it heated in an oven and then put into a form?

On the wheels, they look worn down. Did you sand off tread to make it turn easier?

Dave

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

We built a catapult prototype, but not with the adjustable stop, scoop, or turret.
There will be a pair of omni wheels that help to hold the ball in place, and pivot downwards when firing.
We cut the polycarb on our CNC router and made the bends using a heat gun and a press/break. The wheels are just used ones from the season, nothing special.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Got a part number or link to them? I haven't seen those before but they look intriguing.

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Blind Rivet Supply sells a wide assortment, they'll be labeled as "large flange" rivets.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Well, we did prototype the adjustable scoop, just as a manual adjustment.


Fastenal is where we got them.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Definitely a swing away from the usual simple swiss knife style, but I love it. Wish I could be at Madtown!

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You know you've made it big when people assume every imperfection is genius!

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

I intended to watch this robot play at Madtown, but I apparently tuned in too late.
How did it turn out? What were the learning experiences?

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It was pretty terrible

That's a little harsh. While it didn't perform fantastically, I still thought it was a phenomenal piece of engineering and thoroughly enjoyed seeing it.

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Not harsh at all, as it seriously didn’t work. I’m going to post a render and more details, including lessons learned, sometime next week.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Would you mind posting a model of that compressor bracket? I'd love to 3d print one of those.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Seems like it was geared really fast. Was this the case or was there just no ramping code?

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Nick's assessment is right on the money! It is stunning to see what has been built into such a tiny chassis.

Granted, Lemon Drop did not perform up to the level we have come to expect from 1678, it certainly does meet their engineeding capabilities.
I have little doubt that if they continue to refine the drive code, it will be exactly what you would expect from them!

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

After watching it on stream, it looked like it only had a few small errors that knocked it out of the game, rather than a failure of the overall design.

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The robot was about 80% done. Building the bot took longer than expected which left the programmers without any time to test their code. The robot's new drive code was not ready so we wrote tank drive code in between matches. Tank drive, a short wheel base, and new drivers who did not have any driver practice contributed to the lack of control. The lack of time to test and find bugs also cause the robot to destroy itself.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

..

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So basically, you got a taste of what an average FRC team's season is like? :P

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While we wait for more updates from the folks on 1678, perhaps someone who went to the Madtown event could share some additional close-up pictures of this robot with the rest of us? :D

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Happy to!



Here it is being worked on in their pit.



While this is a photo of when it flipped, that's not why I took it and am sharing it. It shows the packaging on the bottom of the robot really well. Look at the spacing between those MiniCIMs :ahh:!

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Are those Talons/Victors attached to anything, or simply being held in place by wire tension? :confused:

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The ones on the bottom are zip-tied to the bellypan. We have a couple more on top of the bellypan that are pretty much just stuffed under the turret.

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Inquiring minds would love to see more details on this. Maybe its just me but the complexity of this machine seems like a change from the typical 1678 design mentality. Just pushing the boundaries for the "offseason"?

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To be fair, the same argument could be made for their 2016 in-season bot. It was pretty complicated with the rotating, telescoping arm.

I think it's probably a product of lots of experience gained over the past few years and some increased resources that have brought their build techniques to the next level.

Whatever it may be, 1678 never ceases to put out MFD designs, and I love it.

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Justin,

I think the kids are working to tidy up the CAD and get it out so people can take a better look at what went into the design.

First, there definitely was a desire to push the boundaries and see what the current group of students was capable of. The packaging was really intense, and took a lot of whiteboard sessions to figure most of it out.

We also got to try out 5-6 different mechanisms the team hasn't designed before, which was valuable experience. This has paid off for us in past years, so we thought we'd continue trying new mechanisms in the offseason, but built in the "1678 style".

Lastly, this process highlighted some of the general areas we can improve on in the next 1.5 months. With new students every year, there will invariably be strengths and weaknesses in their design, assembly, programming and project management skills (to name a few!). Going through something like this allows mentors like me to better focus my energies on growing students in the ways they need to develop, in order to work as a cohesive unit come January.

We'll find out soon enough if the efforts paid off!

-Mike

Re: pic: 1678 Offseason Robot Progress
 

Separate from all the cool engineering, I would love to hear more about how you worked on this. How to develop students is something we are always looking to improve on.