Robot Creation Help
 

I am the head programmer on 71 and I am working on a project with a few of my friends, using some FIRST parts, in coordination with the mentors of 71. The mentors, are kinda letting us go off on our own with this project, and I ran into an electrical road block.

The 411:

I have 2 FP Motors with the gear boxes, I am looking to create a robot-like device that will weigh between 60 and 75 pounds. I do have an Innovation First OI and RC along with the accompany of a transmitter and receiver, I also have 4 Victor's. Today I received the 12 volt DC battery FIRST issues the teams along with the OI power supply.

Being the programmer of our team, my knowledge of the mechanical aspect of the robot is limited. I know many of you have set up your teams electrical systems, motors mountings, etc.

I have created my controls and they work fine, the problem I am running into is the creation of the RC electrical system. I am looking for a simple 2 FP drive. I know the FP attach to the victors, and The power supply (Battery) goes on the terminal end of the RC and the programming is not a problem.

The problem that I am running into is the wiring of the motors. Do the motors need to go through a spike? I know that you wire the motor to the victor. Does The Lead Coming of the victor go to the PWM's or Relays.

Once I get the wiring done (which will hopefully be soon) I am going to need to mount the FP motors, getting wheels are not a problem, but the axles are what I am having trouble with. If I build a frame out of right angled aluminum, and it is a 60" by 48" frame with a 90 degree angle. (View Picture). If I mount another 90 degree angle the opposite direction. (view pic) how can I attach the FP motors, so that the wheel with be in the space between the frame and the inside 90 degree angle aluminum. If I need an axle for the FP motor where can I buy one.

Thanks For The Help

-Greg The Great

Hey Greg. I'm curious about this. Are they putting you to the test here? Sounds like fun.

I can answer all of your questions, but I'd rather do it in real time on AIM or something. BostonRobot is my SN on AIM. PM me if you need to use MSN or Yahoo. I also have pictures of many robots that mounted the FP motors, including my favorite: 71's 2001 model. Did they lock you in a room and some tools so you can't see the old designs? I'm a little lost as to what those guys have you doing, but none-the-less I can help you.

Your post above has me kind of worried. For the sake of you're electronic's internals, please don't hook up the power to anything before getting advice from generalbrando on the electrical. I can help you too if you need (just post here) but someone already offered so I didn't want to be redundant.

Electrical diagram
 

for wiring of everything go to:


http://www2.usfirst.org/2003comp/rob..._blueprint.pdf

I think this page will help you out!!

Possibly help (if its needed)
 

Hey, head programmer, and co-head electrical guy on (no-longer rookie team) 1002 here. Having basically had to wire our robot several times over, I pretty much have gotten used to the wiring scheme, so I think I can help.

If you havent had the chance to talk to the others real-time yet, read on, otherwise if you're all done, then my post is pointless and disregard it as it probably wouldnt help you out now :-P

motors are wired to the speed controllers. The other side of the speed controllers should be connected to the fuse panel....but wait a second, what tells the controller how fast and in what direction the motor should go then?

There are three small sockets in a row on the speed controller perfectly spaced to accomodate a PWM cable. On the controller, it is labeled which color wire on the PWM cable should go on which side, in case there is any confusion.

This PWM cable should go back to the RC and be plugged into a PWM output (corresponding to the one it is programmed with in the code, but I'm sure you can match this up if you've had that experience coding (or learned quickly when your teammates yelled at you when the left joystick controlled the right side of the robot and vice versa lol)).

As far as the motor going inbetween the two pieces of aluminum angle, sounds like you get the joy of making your own motor mount :D This can be a challenge, and is one reason why many teams were glad that the kits last year came with plastic motor mounts for the drill motors. making a motor mount out of a reletively thick wood or sturdy metal (such as aluminum plates of reasonable thickness) might be an idea, milling out a hole for the drive axle of the FP motor would appear to me to be a viable option, then screwing or boltin the metal plate to the aluminum angle. this would stabalize it up, down, left, and right (going by your diagram). As far as stabalize it from moving in and out.....uhm zip ties! lol might not be most professional but I think it could work, then again I'm not exactly a mechanical person (while I have a few good ideas once in a while, I generally stick to electronics and programming).

If you have any questions, feel free to IM me on AIM or Yahoo...... my sn is RobotCoder, or to email me at RobotCoder@yahoo.com, or simply reply to this post. Hope I helped ;)

Thanks For The Help Guys,

A few more questions.....

Now that I have my FP's up and running, how can I attach my FP's to the robot, I have a 2 Inch angle piece on each side around 7 Inches in. I need to get some axels for the FP's, I know they were included in the kit this year, does anyone else know of a place where I can get a few of them. I am also going to have to mount the FP's, any ideas?

Thanks For The Help,

-Greg The Great