Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Hi everyone, I'm new to the boards. Happy to be here.

Anyway, I'm relatively new to robotics, and I think it would be a good idea to have a collection of threads that can explain some important essentials of robotics to noobies like me, something like a "Hitchhiker's Guide to Robotics."
Can anyone here suggest some good threads to include for something like this?

Thanks.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/announcement.php?f=16

Those are some good threads about how to use chiefdelphi to it's fullest extent. As for other good threads, it really depends what you're interested in. Try searching for something and see what you come up (Drive Trains, Game Strategy, Fundraising, etc.)

~Allison

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

You might start with the topic specific forums located at:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums

Some of the more technical ones usually have sticky threads always located at the top on the most common issues.
Josh Hambright also produced something along the lines you are looking for, collections of the most interesting threads, in a couple of the heavily trafficked areas. His lists are stickys in their respective forums.
In the Electrical sub-forum
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=33430
or in Control Systems
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33473

I'd also take a look at the FIRSTwiki located at:
http://www.firstwiki.org
It's more in the style of a Hitchhiker's Guide.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Don't Panic.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I believe that 365 "Moe" has exactly what you are looking for.

http://www.moe365.org/moementum.php

This is their guide for people new to FIRST. It covers all aspects that you might be looking for. They should just call their guide "42".
Other than that, you can fill in anything that is missing by looking through the Chief Delphi Forums.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

it all depends on what you like to do...

for example, i like electronics, but not programing, i dable in drive systems and mechanics, but animation is way too confusing for me, i do NEMO stuff (nonengineer mentor organization), maybe ur the teams award writer and want info on differnt chairmens award submissions, so all in all CD has way too much information, and for that it should be shut down... i mean umm if your looking for it and its FIRST related then chances are you will find it just search for what your looking for (see link in my sig)

there was a movie about baseball and some crazy guy and everyone knows the line that i am about to say

IF you searchg for it, IT will come

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Welcome to Chief Delphi and to the wonderful world of FIRST robotics!

Be sure to check out the White Papers section (there is a link at the top of each page in Chief Delphi to it) - Here you will find many, many papers contributed by teams, students and mentors on a variety of technical and non technical subjects. There are lots of papers directed at rookie teams that you might find helpful as a rookie member of a veteran team, such as what to expect at competitions, tips for pit setup at competitions, mechanical and electrical tips, team organization ideas, Chairman's Award entries, etc.

If you are a mentor dealing with the non-technical areas, PM me and I will tell you more about NEMO (Non-Engineering Mentor Organization).

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

http://www.firstwiki.org

It's like Wikipedia, only for FIRST. :)

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

whoa that was creepy...
somehow i managed to see 'Robotics "Hitler's Guide"' instead of "Hitchhiker's Guide"...almost as creepy as the time I thought all my zip ties disappeared :D

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Always carry a white towel.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I thought it was just ANY towel, not just a white one.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Actually, it's any towel, but the preferred color is blue.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I was going to say a clean towel, esp to events :^)

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I second the wikipedia.
Actually, it would be ideal if someone (or maybe a bunch of people) make a hitchhikers guide to robotics on FIRSTwiki.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Yeah i heard a couple of people talking about this. If anyone wants to start a group to make one i would love to contribute.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Linked on the main page of ChiefDelphi.com, www.FIRSTWiki.org

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Yeah but thats not guite a hichhiker guide. Also it would be nice to add a crisis wiki where people can add suggestions for specific areas (like wiring or making carbon fiber rods ect...) and ask for help. This has been talked about before and it would be nice to combine the two ideas and actually make one.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

I've been to the FIRSTwiki a few times, but the thing is that if you're completely new to the world of robotics (i.e. you barely know a typical FIRST robot's anatomy and parts), you have a really hard time finding topics that'll help you. My idea was to create more of a centralized guide of the basics, a place where if you want to quickly get through the basic aspects of things like pneumatics or programming, you could easily go through a few important threads really quickly. A few specialized subforums here have that, and there are a number of very informative white papers, but it can be hard to get around for a total noob, and not everything's there. A good "Hitchhiker's Guide to Robotics" could make tenderfoots like me into semi-knowledgeable roboteers quicker and easier than through searching blindly.

Also, thanks for pointing out the MOE website, that's an interesting comparison to the way my team runs the building season.

And yeah, it can be ANY towel :)

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

If I did start one, who here would be willing to put in some useful knowledge?
I think the general concept is to touch every important aspect of FIRST robotics then give a link to a more complicated/thorough FIRSTwiki article or anything that may help.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

And perhaps put it in a portable form?

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I agree with you completely, NoodleKnight, that sounds just like what I was thinking of. If I can find any stuff in the archives s I go through them, I'll help out. Maybe after everything is gathered, we can set up a PDF of the basics as a type of hand-out. We need people to suggest good threads or sites for the info, though.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Sure. I originally intended it to be on the FIRSTwiki so that everyone could contribute and edit it on a continual basis.
Although it would be really nice to have it in packet form, I guess you can just print the webpages out :P
I'll try formatting the wiki articles to be printer friendly, but if not I'll figure something out.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

We can use the numerous white pages on CD (with permission of course). I have some good basic tips for begining electrical systems that even experienced teams tend to overlook.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Alright, I started one: The Hitchhikers Guide To Robotics
I added some temporary stuff, I'll work more on it later once I clean my room. I can't even see my floor anymore.
I would be happy if others could contribute a little bit of useful information, just try to be brief and cover most important aspects. Then follow it up with a link to a more detailed page if you like.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

The information about FIRST is so rich and diverse that it is hard to have just one source.
Team 341 "Miss Daisy" has a DVD/CD Set called "Team in a Box" that we can send you for free. Just click on the "Team in a Box" banner at www.team341.com and place your order. Hope this helps in your search for the essentials of FIRST.

Al Ostrow
Team 341

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

FIRSTwiki was created for this very purpose, please contribute!

Hey look somebody actually started a node!

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

seems like we are duplicating a lot of work that has already been done.

The FIRST website has information on how to start new teams, and there are publications on how to use the pnuematics, how to use the controllers, how to fund teams....

shouldnt this information really be kept on the official FIRST website, possibly with links to usefull documents that individual teams or engineering associations have put together?

One of the keys of engineering is knowing what has already been done, and not using up your time and resources duplicating someone elses work.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Like Ken said above why reinvent the wheel. Over the past many years FIRST has put on workshops at both the Kickoff event and at the Championship event. Many of these resources have been saved and hosted on the FIRST Team Resources page. The Following links are to the 2002-2005 Kickoff workshops, and the 2004 and 2005 Championship Conferences documents. Other Information and resources are available on the Team Resources page too.

Kickoff Workshop Presentations

Presentations from the 2004 FRC Championship Conferences

Presentations from the 2005 FRC Championship Conferences

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Don't forget to soak it in vitamins

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

No offense to FIRST but their guides have a very detached look on the work i do. I think that we should create one with a personal touch and more in depth advice. Ive found i do things that are extremely useful that you wont find in any of the guides they have and then again while they have things that would be useful to do with a robot that is larger or runs longer is completely redundant with our robots. :rolleyes: I think that something written by the people who actually do this and constantly think about it would be extremely useful to beginning students.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Please see my post 2 above yours. All the resources i listed have been compiled and presented by professional and reliable FIRST students and mentors, not necessarily FIRST themselves. If you have done something and think it will be useful write it up to a White Paper and upload it to ChiefDelphi.com.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I was responding to Kent i noticed your posts and was responding to someone his post and statements. Please notice while my post came right after yours i was specificially responding to someone else. Im glad you agree with me but my post didn't pertain to those links. I know this post may sound a little angry but i assure you its not just me saying to read who i respond too. :)

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Just because Mike wasn't responding to you, doesn't mean he doesn't have a valid point you should read. His reply to your concern that the presentations on the FIRST website:

seemed valid. In fact, I suggest you perhaps re-read many of the presentations on the FIRST website (all the ones written by FIRST participants).

Thank you Mike for pointing these out. They will no doubt be useful to anyone just starting in the program.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Oh i agree his posts were most helpful I'm just saying that i said why beginners should look other places than just FIRST material in response to Kent's post and it seems dez250 mistook it as me saying nobody was posting material by Forster's or that their was none. but i was just telling him that my post was exclusively explaining to Kent the value of other sources.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I've said it before but I'll say it again. There is no better "guide" to FRC than to become an active member on Chief Delphi and read all the new posts every day. Where do you think I learned everything I know?

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Agreed.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Ken and dez raise a good point that the stuff is out there. However, I have been on a team for three years and around FIRST for far longer, and I have not really known where this kind of thing is. I see a pneumatics document around our build area and it's like "Where'd this come from?" I hear of various supplemental materials for the manual and I wonder what this is and where.
If we have some sort of guide that can answer most basic questions and includes where the information came from--as NoodleKnight is starting--I think that everyone will have an easier time because the veterans can refer rookies to the guide--and go there themselves. Hey, if the current manual is listed, it becomes one of a very few places where you could individually learn the basics in one (admittedly long) session.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Also, if I might suggest, we might want to add some tounge-in-cheek humor and jokes that are in the real HHGTTG. But that's just something to add after someone gets the main document(s) done.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

I know that when I read a how-to book, I like examples and humor mixed in with the instructional stuff. That is one reason I like the "For Dummies" books. I read a book on parlementary presedure and accually didn't hate it. (for those of you who don't know wat parlementary presedure is, let's just say while it is important, it is very, very boring). Humor and practical examples are key to a good instructional book/artical/publication/whatever.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

Agreed. But now, we actually need people to post some threads that would qualify for the guide.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

To paraphrase Douglas Adams himself...

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an FRC hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you await the start of a regional in the cold morning hours; you can lie on it out in the sun during your lunch break; you can sleep under it up in the stands; use it to cover electronics while drilling or grinding; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of Big Mike (a mindboggingly stupid animal, he assumes that if you can't see him, he can't see you - daft as a bush, but gives very ravenous bear hugs); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if another FRC participant discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a cordless drill, a tape measure, electrical tape, zip ties, surgical tubing, allan wrenches, socket wrenches, electrical connectors, PWM cables, spare pneumatic cylinders, etc. Furthermore, the FRC participant will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the FRC participant will think is that any man who can go through a six week build period, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

It's been a while since I've read the novels, but that's what they say as near as I remember.

Re: Robotics "Hitchhiker's Guide"
 

HA i laugh at your towel! No the most important tool is duct tape. Simply put what can't it be used for! You could even make a towel out of it. By the way i love that quote. Terry Pratchett is the one writer who has inspired me the most and is probably the the source of most of my disorders!