Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

And this is how CD cancer starts..

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Every team runs things differently. FRC does not dictate roles for mentors or students. I happen to do most of the modeling for 95. We shall leave it at that because there are many other threads discussing this particular topic.

Thank you for reading, I'm glad that you enjoy it!

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Started off with a minor disaster. We had a hex bearing come in with the hex bore not concentric, visibly, with the outer race. Very weird to diagnose.

Moving on... parts! Parts are getting made about as fast as we can stand.



We use a CNC plasma cutter, then sometimes a CNC mill, to make a majority of our components. Then we bend them up on a manual finger brake. Even rookies can get the hang of it quickly!



Practice robot drive base is together. Wiring shall start tomorrow!

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

While those are quite nice close up shots of your robot, I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at in particular.

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

First shot is an over-all of the parts we've blanked and (some) bent so far. These include nearly all of our gear-handling parts and chassis parts.
Second shot is the belly pan of the robot.
Third is the practice robot's drive base.

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Bonus image.



I've been told that I might have played too much West Point Bridge Designer...

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

No, it should not concern you.

Different teams run things in different, equally valid ways. The community would be a better place if people understood that was not only a good thing, but part of what makes FIRST great.
_

James, I might not be working with a team this year, but to echo earlier sentiments this thread is always a highlight. It's been very interesting to see you and your team evolve in design. I'm just sad I've never gotten a chance to see one of your robots in person!

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

This is our first year using vex planetary gearboxes. I see you have mounted one directly to your intake shaft. We never thought to do this. How do they hold up to being mounted like this? Does repeated shaft deflection put undo stress on the gearbox? Any weird loading issues?

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

I am with you on this one. Myself and other mentor for the team help out with the design of the robot in Inventor due to the fact that our school hardly teaches 3D modeling to a degree in which the student can have the design done before the robot can be built. Normally after the season we have students design any of Off-season robot that is thought of.

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Makes a lot of sense to me. I taught myself Solidworks for an off-season project which definitely made it easier going into the build season. But, still there are a lot of different things that you need to understand from an engineering perspective that cannot be easily taught to a student who is also balancing a heavy school work load.

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Thanks!

We've used this sort of setup before, but we make sure that the coupling of the output shaft is rigidly coupled to the cross shaft so the transmission output shaft isn't cantilevered.

In general we've found that the VP gearboxes are quite robust if a bit of care is taken in their mounting and assembly. This might mean NOT mounting them super-rigidly to prevent slight mis-alignments from putting a lot of load on the bearing package.

We do teach CAD in the offseason so that our kids are familiar with how it operates and what problems it can be used to solve. However, we've found it to be remarkably more fun and productive for the students to make prototype and mock-up subsystems while I turn their discoveries into something manufacturable.

We also use CAD heavily. Cardboard Aided Design. Which is considerably more accessible and intuitive to most students than the other CAD. It plays into our sheet-metal-heavy design repertoire nicely.

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

I totally agree with this.

I'm still trying to balance how much is healthy for students to be hands off and how much are mentors having fun and using "teaching experience" for just doing what they want.

Having 15+ years in various CAD environments, I know the time involved when you get down to the small details of a design that's never been built. Companies spend months to years designing something this complex and we give the students 6 weeks.
Key question for myself is "Am I doing this to help them learn or because I want to win?".

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

This is a good thread. Team 95 is nice enough to share their designs and progress every year. They are willing to help other teams (like mine) by answering questions. Can we please stop talking about the mentor-student involvement dead horse here. If everyone continues to chime in about this, the thread will devolve because EVERYONE has an opinion about this. It will cease to be helpful.

If you want to talk about this more, please please start a new thread or go to the countless other threads on this topic. Please don't respond to this message.

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Looking good James!

What I love most about these threads is you see how 95 has developed while iterating their own ways of building their robot(s).

Can't wait to see it!

Re: Team 95 2017 Build Thread
 

Quick question, are those bolts-with-washers on your drive axles to hold the bearings in place in the side plates? And are you using flanged or non-flanged bearings in the drive?