ermm, chil out dude. i think your bot really looks sharp!

i noticed the way your electrical system was set up right away, looks really neat and quite spiffy. you shoulda seen the first couple of Bots our team made, we actually keep them and i shudder when i look at them, thay make that look like a Veteran bot!
just the general way your organized really lets me know your on the right track. nobody has the recources the first year to do anything magnificent. you will come back next year and have a better idea of what you are doing an maybe build something that doesnt "suck" as much

my honest opinion.. your off to a pretty darn good start!

~Pyro

It actually looks pretty good for any team. It looks solid enough to do some good pushing and knocking over stacks, pushing boxes. If you have a bot that can move right now you're probobly ahead of the majority of teams. You still have a few weeks to work on it. As for being a rookie team, if you've never seen a competition or at least a few dozen bots you don't know what to expect or whats possible. Good Luck.

It looks pretty clean. The 3/8" chain will probably never break either. However, I would check to make sure that you are using the right wire guage as specified in the manual, and also check to make sure that you aren't violating the light visability rules in update #5 because the battery may block too much from one angle. you may also want to move the breaker to prevent it from being accidently tripped. I'm curious why you cut the battery connector in half as well.

Help??
 

To the origional poster:

I see that you are in Irvine. Rather than just complaining, why don't you ask for some help. My school is about one hour away from you and if you need advice, feel free to call or e-mail me. It looks like you have some good stuff and I realize that we have about 2 weeks left, but if you need help, its not too late.

If you (or any other team) would like advice or help, contact me:

(818) 248-TECH (This is my school--ask for Chris Kilpatrick and tell tham its about robotics or leave a message as to how I can contact you back)

cdk@1stnetusa.com (e-mail)

Hope this helps...

-Chris

For a rookie team with just 11 members you did pretty good.

I'd try and loose some of the wood though. Your drive train is pretty diesel, and I don't think the wood will hold up under battle conditions.

I'd also add that it looks pretty heave for just a drive train what do you currently weigh in at? Take in to consideration what other sub-systems you still want to add.

Overall, I wouldn't be too hard on your selves, I've seen a lot worse...

hey, don't be dissing the wood! we have always built our chassis out of wood, and it always works. you'd be surprised at how strong wood can be if you put the cassis together correctly. the good thing about it is that it flexes when it gets hit. as long as it doesn't snap (which is rare if it is properly reinforced), a wooden chassis will always return to the state it was in before it got hit - unlike aluminum, which has a nasty habit of bending if you whack it hard enough. Wood is also really light.


i might also point at that another team who also has a long history of using wooden chassis is RAGE (173). And they did kinda win the national championshis last year, didn't they?

Re: Anyone else with a really bad robot?
 

That's easy enough.

Our team is in practically the same shape - 11 seniors with a couple of teachers and our parents. We're extraordinarily lucky in that our teacher knows a guy who welds Battlebots together (he did the frame of the one that killed Ziggo in the most recent season) and one of our team member's fathers is a master electrician, so our wiring is ultra-neat.

And in spite of that, our robot isn't even to the "moving" point yet. We're getting there, but not quite. And when we finally test it for the first time I fully expect our drill motors to explode or melt or something because no one on our team knew about all the technical problems they tend to encounter before mounting them (it was practically the first thing we did) and now it's too late to change things without practically tearing the bot apart. Fun. :D

Re: Re: Anyone else with a really bad robot?
 

Was this at SVR in 2001?

I dont believe chatsworth was there in 01' im not sure about 330 though

[edit]you guys may want to consider putting your wheels on the bottom of the frame. I dont think youll have enough clearance that way when you go up the ramp. You may bottom out. [edit]

Cory

Rookies are called rookies for a reason - especially if you don't have much help, you're bound to have it rough from the start.

I think your robot looks great, and I hope you come from behind and do wonderfully this season!

Tip: Don't ever give up on your robot, especially this early in the season. That robot is what you make of it. If you give it your all, something good is bound to come your way. Best of luck.

Amanda

hehe i think my post came across differently than i wanted it too. I'm not trying to complain, i'm just trying to get a feel for if there are any other teams out there in the same shape. With 1000 teams i was hoping they wouldn't all be as good as some of the ones i've seen in the gallery

and about the bottoming out issue, we calculated that before mounting the wheels, we have about .46 inches of clearance going over the top.

And the wiring isn't done yet, that was a hasty job i did just to see if it ran, we will wire it neatly when it's time to finalize.

We are considering drill some holes in the wood if we go over weight, but I don't think that will be a problem with the design we have now.


thanks for all the good advice

ok, I'm sorry, I'm an aluminum type person... Wood just scares me, I would be afraid that it would crack, but you're right, it is is assembled properly it should be ok. And yes it is lighter...

Speaking of which, we'll be sheding some weight this week......

Aluminum worked for us 380 for 3 years str8, in this 4th year, we're going for METAL :cool: ........

hey rookie teams, don't b depress if your robot dosn't look like the ones in the gallery, becase remember that some teams have more than 3 engeneers workin' in their robot, and the fact that ya'll did it by yourself, erns a lot of respect from my part...... if you ever c 380 in the NY or any other regenal, look for us and let me know who you are, and mayb we can work something out, if u know what i mean ;)

---===~~Ariel ( Xperience Driver/ COACH )~~===---

Ok, I can see the pictures now and it's a beautiful chassis. You'll have some trouble if nothing is added, but you can still be good if it's not.

As I said, get a lot of practice driving, a good driver is often better than a good bot. Those look like 8 x 3 wheels which will give pretty good traction too.

Be optimistic and work with what you have, you could be a regional champ or rookie all star

I saw the six hour robot. It did move - but since it was only a wedge with 2 wheels it kinda got stuck a lot going through the barrier - I don't think it placed or was selected to go on. This was at the 2001 SVR.

Also team's 255 robot in 1999 was a welded iron bedrail framed, FP 2 wheel drive that barely could move. It placed 192 out of 212
at the Nationals (I think). The next year well...


Moral of the story - there is a reason they give out the rookie of the year awards. Most of these rookies have got a lot of help from veterans. So if you move, every time - you have done great!
You make the most progress and learn the most during your rookie year - and by all means get help if you need it.