how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

my team...well...um... we opened the box and umm... we put together the kitbot sort of and umm... :confused: i dont know what else we did

how far have other teams gotten?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

if yo didnt use the kitbot what did you use? i mean there is the costs and the design and the kitbot is simple. please explain ow you can make something other that a kitbot with the KOP

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we only have some prototypes made from cardboard, we can stop the camera from having fits, and its so freaking cold in our shop! but the 3ds max team (which only consist of me and two other non-dedicated dudes :( ) is doing well. I just finishing lip synch today and i only had one aneurysms so far :D .

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

One week in, and after strategizing the heck out of the game, 1293 has together our Kitbot frame and transmissions, with the gear tooth sensors mounted as well.

This week, the aim is to get Chomp ready for wiring.

(Yes, that would also be the first public mention of our 2006 robot's name.)

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

You can purchase Alum stock from many sources and make a frame that is lighter and custom to your application. It really is not that hard.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

good point.

unfortunutely we arent able to get mor alum so we are stuck using kitbot.

we are still working on trying to make the motors work and i just found out that wheels cant be chemically treater for traction.

my school has problems with their robot

which brings up another question: have you had problems with your robot/prototype? i mean something like blowing up or smoking. our motors started to smoke

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

The chassis design is pretty much complete. The environmental manipulators have gone through concept and are going into design.

We're far behind schedule, but doing very well compared to last year... The design deadline has been pushed back 4 days.

We also had time to play with some proof-of-concept prototypes and looked at a bunch of commercial ball throwing devices.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

i remember the vex robots last year. my schools vex robot blew up and part of the team had scratches and burns.

remember to wear your safety glasses

just had to say that

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Wow! tell me in detail how you got that to happen!

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We have hardly even finished the chassis of the kitbot, but that's because we took a week off for exams.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

aactually it has almost happened before at home. the motors were accidentally left running and the thing heated up so much it started to smoke and burn.

at school it was all encased with no holes so the case exploded with the rest of that side.

strange things sometimes happen but for once this wasnt my fault

we just finished exams. we had to work through them

anyone else had things blow up or burn?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

as for the motors on the kitbot smoking the real problem was because there was a gear stuck.

we now have it working again and it is fine

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

No matter how much you do you will never be on schedule. So we are far enough.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

I'm so glad our schools exams are befor break.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

First thing is was the robot moving. If the robot was not moving then most likely your motors were made to run opposite of each of each other. Which could cause them to blow up since they would be fighting each other.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Our drivetreain design deadline is wednesday but I hear that we will be done by tomorrow and order parts by tomorrow and starting builing the drivetrain by wednesday.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we have finsih protype start build monday have finished
with driver programing and auton which only took us about 4 hours

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

actually our robot was upside down and we were staring at it dumbfounded.

the motor was plugged in but the gear that it was attached to was stuck

and during all this i thought: dont those look like the cookies i put in the oven before school...the oven is still on...oh no!!!

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we opened up our boxes and took otu everything... and then pulled out cardboard and had an arts and crafts show. then played marioparty2 and then back to inventor.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

I watched a teammate last year shatter a Dremel bit and it literally threw shrapnel that bounced off his safety glasses...needless to say he held onto his goggles a little tighter after that encounter...

68 has a few prototypes working. We're still testing different ideas, though. Hopefully by the end of this week or next we will have settled on a design.

And no, we're not using the kitbot.

JBotAlan

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

as far as that goes i have a couple of questions that is probably cause im a rookie.

1. What is a dremel bit?
2. how do they shatter?
3. if it shattered why did it "throw" shrapnel? it should have dropped.
4. why did it only hit his goggles?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

A dremel bit is a bit for a small tool that spins at extremely high RPM. Good for grinding, cutting, etc.
http://images.google.com/images?q=tb...20mototool.jpg

Now, when a small, hardened tool breaks for some reason, it still contains a lot of energy. When it breaks, it shatters, and pieces, with lots of rotational energy, fly outwards, kind of like a sharp explosion. Little bits of shrapnel. When you use a dremel, you often end up putting your face quite close to the work, so when a bit shatters, it sprays stuff all over your face, including you safety glasses. I'm sure they had lots of little cuts too, but in comparison to what could have been lost, its very minor.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

hmmm dremel looks sort of like a recipricoal saw.

anyway that is a very cool mishap even better than the picture of a whole bunch of high school students looking at a burning motor and not knowing what to do.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We have finished designing, and have been prototyping for a few days now. We just started to CAD everything, and work on the drive system.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Team 949 has gone through our concepts and we are now going through the designing period.

We are planning to build a prototype launcher and the target tomorrow and by next sunday we should have everything autocadded and ready for building..

Maybe we should build the kop bot.. hmm.. :rolleyes: other than that we haven't done anything else

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We've also finished designing. We are just now in the final stages of prototyping and putting the finishing touches on our designs. Tomorrow we are going shopping for a good portion of the additional parts we need.

As programmer, I have no say in all of this, but I can make special interest advocacies. We finally got our Gyroscopes and our rights to the CMU Camera and the Accelerometer. The programmers, including myself, are currently writing pseudocode.

But we have made much more progress in our design than any of our teams in the past, outside of our rookie year.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for kitbots, we are using the kit, but we are not staying inside it. This may be the first year in which we don't use the kit wheels, though. Our drive team wants "tricks" (trick wheels) and "grips" (grip wheels). After their experiments with Deeper Thought, the decided that the kit wheels were not going to be sufficient for climbing up the hill. So, I'm not sure if the kit wheels will hold. However, the chassis will be from the kit and we'll do better weight management (so we actually have a good frame).

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We've got the design figured out and are tweaking a few dimensions. some of the team is building a test launcher and a goal, and we've got the Kitbot build (but not running) as a test bed for the sensors.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

The short answer: "Not nearly far enough."

We have tested some prototypes with varying levels of success and have started some design work. We haven't put the kitbot from '06 together yet because of some offseason work we have been doing involving a kitbot that we had already put together.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We didn't like how the first one turned out, so we are buildiing a second 'bot. Aw, just kidding. The chassis team is done with their design and they are ordering parts. The game system team is having the prototype shoot-off on Tuesday, and will order parts this week. The programming/controls team is working on driver selection, functional control design, and testing the camera and other sensors. The electrical/pneumatic team is playing cards and waiting. The PR team is supposed to deliver final designs on Friday for our t-shirts, driving suits, helmets, buttons, banners, and the animation file for our blimp.

One week in, we are four weeks behind. Life's like that. From Shakespeare in Love:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery.

Replace "theatre" with "robotics" and you begin to understand...

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We are using the kitbot frame with minor modifications, and have that all designed. Our [strikeout]arm[/strikeout]* mechanism team has also created a shooter prototype. It seems to work well, so now we are tweaking it and finding the best configuration, making a final model, and moving on to the next challenge.

*I've been guilty of calling it the "arm" team accidentally more than once, and been ridiculed. My team also made fun of me for calling it that on Chief Delphi once as well, so here I am, making public amends to the community at large. :rolleyes:

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Our team has finalized the drivetrain and several aspects of our shooter and basket. Now all that is left is to string out the details of our mechanism, which we will take care of tomorrow. I wish you all the best of luck in finishing your bots!

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Motors smoke probably because you burned them out by not gearing them well. There are a lot of other possibilities as to what went wrong. We could help you figure out what went wrong if you told us more about what you were trying to do.
Since the KOP came with a kit, we figure, someone has done the work for us. We'll try it their way.
We try not to build our own designs too early so that we don't limit our potential designs. We're in a brainstorming/designing/prototyping week. I guess we'll start finalizing in two more weeks. We hold off on 7-day work weeks until later in the build season. And of course, all weeks are paperwork weeks. Don't forget to go through the manual and get all of the little tasks done in time.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We love working through exams! Ours starts on the 17th. The majority of the team doesn't study for exams--not saying that's good or bad.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

aha! OK here's what went wrong. If the gear that the motor's output shaft was attached to was stuck, the motor was doing only what it knows how to do; it wants to move. It will keep forcing its way, drawing more current, trying to get its output shaft to move. If it's locked up, eventually the motor burns itself on the inside.
This is why we gear motors down. If you attach the motor directly to the wheel's axle, it doesn't have enough initial acceleration to go from zero to its max rpm, which is what it's trying to do. You know we solve this problem by putting a gear with fewer teeth on the motor, then a bigger gear on the wheel, and you get a ratio. The motor has to rotate several times before the one on the wheel makes it all the way around, but it's actually a good thing because it prevents it from locking up. The motor gets to move right away, so it's happy.
The worst thing that can happen is the motor is trying to move but can't, and then it keeps trying until it burns out. In the future, make sure the motor is free to move before you turn it on, and be ready to turn it off right away if something doesn't seem right.
A lot of other things could go wrong. You said you were using the kit, so I hope you were using the correct motor. It's the regular CIM motor, not the larger ones; part numbers FP801-005 vs FP801-001.
When motors are gone, they're gone. Spare parts are in 5.4.5 of the manual (you feel kind of crazy when you have a copy of the manual on your bed) the URL for the IFI store is http://www.ifirobotics.com/0-index.htm and I don't know how long it'll take for them to get there, so hurry.
I hope some of the things covered in this post were already familiar to you.
If you need more help, CD is the right place! Good luck! :)

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We have made a prototype shooter (including some CNCed parts) that will send the ball 60 feet! :ahh: The accuracy still needs a little working on, but it was hard to know on a windy day and outdoor testing space.

The gearbox design is almost done. CIM motors have been ordered. The wheels and frame construction has been decided. Frame design is starting. Wheels, gears, bearings, sprockets, and chain will be ordered on Wednesday.

The ball manipulation group is still working on conceptual pickup, conveyance, and feeding technique and volume allocation.

Overall, I'd say we're slightly ahead with the drivetrain and pretty much on track with the ball manipulation.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

well weve gotten the kit frame and gearboxes build and mounted. weve got our bin fully designed and 75% done. and our cannon . .well its in that weird period where we know what it needs to look like and hows its going to mount and how its going to work, but not drawn out. so for a weeks worth of work I would say were ahead of the game.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We are now done with exams (we did work through them), but we are behind our schedule. Chassis building is in progress, one prototype tested, and the camera's getting coded while someone works on a scale model of the field. There are parts to be ordered and the website team is still brainstorming ideas.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we put together the kitbot to house some of our prototype ball shooters, but we're not using it as our base. we're using box aluminum:)

the prototypes continue to develop, but we're having a lot of math errors in calculations. What does everyone think the perfect ball shooter will contain?
1 wheel? 2 wheels? how hard will it be to load?

we've had 2 tested prototypes so far with barely any success. But atleast we're learning. Right now, we're working on 2 more that will hopefully produce better results.

Our camera team continues to develop as they decode and find the target. We're really lucky for all our team did last year with the camera, so this year, the improvement on the vision system is helping us tremendously.

But Pelan, i am in agreement. Not far enough. Our mentor's goal is to have the robot finished in 3 weeks from today. Idk how that will work out, but we're trying ;)

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

so for most people the kitbot was not used and was discarded for custom designs. do the custom designs hit the maximums?

i know that the kitbot exceeds them. we had to cut the size down for ours.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we have the base done with two speed. we have the prototype shooter done and working very well. our 10 ball magazine done ready to go. only one thing left couple of front roller and a basket to hold them in. we figure by next Friday everything done and then getting a lot of drive and play time. this is where we find out what needs to be improved. (waiting for Fabric and pool noodles to come in to finish the bumpers)

We will have about 3 weeks of stick time. plenty of time to be ready.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

my team has got the kit chasis nearly running and we have the basics of our design down and are in the process of tweaking it. farther along than I had dared to hope.
:D :yikes:

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

hmm making it in 2 parts is a good idea.

when we finish it it will probably be right before the deadline.

with ours the balls will have a conveyer belt carry them up and then a pneumatic shooter shoot them out. is this a good idea?
yay!!! this is my 50th post

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Clarkees have CNC mills?! :ahh:
Lucky... :(

We are building a life size field and training n00bs, while the veterans and some n00bs are working on the design.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

i made the entire field in solidworks and our team leader made the platform out of plywood. we found that the kitbot barely makes it up the ramp without bottoming out

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Practice field: 60%

Proof of concept prototypes. CAD drawings for lower chassis. Fabrication to begin tomorrow.

Programming: Havn't had too much time for it.

Animation: 10%

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Our team prototypes everything first. So as of now it's all in cardboard and PVC. There are some details that need to be figured out with the design before we can put the kit bot chassis together. But we're basically on schedule and I'd say further along than last year so that's good. woot

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We finished the kitbot chassis, we tossed on a couple of gears, and 2 CIM motors from last year, to set up 4 wheel drive. We did some testing, and we got it to push several cinder blocks, but the kitbot wheel slip way too much. We are searching for new wheels. Our camera is shy. It will look at the target, then stare at the ground. For our launcher, we have doodles and equations...

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We are using the kit gearboxes, not using any other parts of the kitbot though.

Our progress:
Drivetrain design completed, Parts have been ordered and should be done by friday or saturday.
Payload concept is pretty much done, hasnt been designed in detail yet though.
Programmers having fun with the camera i think.
Field is partialy completed.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Ha ha, that's funny! But, yeah we have gotten some work done. We have design ideas, but we've had lots of fun shooting poofs at people with our prototype :rolleyes: What's even funnier is that our advisor is encouraging us to shoot balls at each other! Now that I've gotten way off topic... The animation team has their concept and have started animating, we haven't assembled the vision target, but that's ok because we haven't even assembled the camera yet either. I love my team and our pro-procrastination style :D

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We're done :shifty eyes:.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Our prototype chassis should be completed tonight and I hope to finish milling the competition-legal chassis parts by tomorrow night. I'm a bit behind because a dumb error on my part shorted out the CNC machine and it took some time for our electrically inclined people to track down the three fried voltage rectifiers and replace them.

The manipulator design is about 75% complete, I'd say, disregarding the less-important shooting mechanism. The easiest parts are finished -- namely the superstructure -- and it's awaiting motor mounts, belting, pulleys, chain and sprockets. We will likely need to redesign our hopper as well so as to better mate it to this new manipulator.

I flip-flop back and forth between thinking that we're on or ahead of schedule and chastizing myself for working so slowly on finalizing a design.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

did you use a gear box? If so did you remember to grease the gears. :)

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Yes shceuing, yes we are. :yikes:

But seriously, we are working on shooter prototypes. We arent going to have much trouble on the frame and harvester this year, so what we are doing is running three prototyping teams for shooters. We put one together a few days after kickoff and it failed miserably. It was really truly awful. Hopefully these upcoming designs will work far better.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We have prototyped our harvesting mecanism.

Infact we picked up balls smoothly just tonight using the prototype. However our chasis is not near done yet.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

The chassis will be back from the cnc tomorrow and fully assembled by the end of the week. We have our final shooter mechanism (aluminum) finished as of this morning. Still a ways to go but we're getting there...

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Well, our team has ordered most of the parts we need and plan to order the rest by wednseday. We have a shooter, a archimedes (sp?) screw, a conveyor belt and ball collector prototyped. We're using part of the kitbot chasis too. We need a few belts to get in before we do the drivetrain and we need to get some alum stock for the rest of the chasis, but otherwise, I'd say we are about on schedule.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Our base is done, and painted.

For now, we are waiting for the oh so great Fed-Ex to deliver tons of goodies from McMaster Carr.

The transmission designs are complete, and will start to be machined tomorrow. (Note: All New England teams... run and hide ;) )

Whatever is putting the power to the floor is being machined this week.

Whatever is helping us score points has been loosely designed, and will be finalized and manufactured in the upcoming week and a half.

Programming and driver practice is expected to take >3 weeks.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Well...we know what we want it to do and have a mock up of the field (that we have to take down all the time because we don't have a space to leave it up). We are in design groups, and working as fast as possible to come up with a good design.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Our team has gotten our camera working perfectly to track the green target and we have some working prototypes of our shooter, ball collector, and hopper.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Wow, it seems like quite a few people are pretty far ahead in my book. I mean, approaching finished, competition ready mechanisms/parts at the start of week 2? That's either impressive or frightening, I haven't decided which.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Either that, or someone hasn't heard of "Haste makes waste" and isn't going to have a winning robot. I'm willing to bet that most of these teams are using Kitbot as their drivebase.

We are still in basic design, but we have one component made: the flag holder, minus endcap. We are also prototyping like anything this week.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

The mechanical aspect is only half of the game.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We have our camera assembled but so far that's it. I'm looking at starting our electrical system soon though.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

For programming, we managed to get our camera to move some before our laptop yelled at us and stopped cooperating. We also figured out what sensors we needed and laid out what we think would be a good control board, it will be changed though.

Mechanical is building the chassis and transmissions from the kit (with modifications of course), and deciding what parts need to be bought.

Everything else is prototypes and drawings though.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

After one week team 1245 has a 6 wheel KIT drivetrain almost finished. The programmers can scam and track the green light. The ball launcher prototype made from 8020 and plywood is ready for accuracy testing. All field elements are built.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

the funny part is, jack, that we tried another one yesterday and it was even worse than that.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Well at the end of the first week our team has succesfully built a chassis that will go over the ramp. Still keeping our low center of gravity we are using a chasis similiar to KOP chassis and a tranny similiar to that of the KOP or if worst comes to worst the KOP tranny is what we will use. We have succesfully mad a ball collection device that picks up balls rather quick. And are shooter is nice we can shoot and have made baskets into a 27" hola hoop. and that was at about 30 feet away. So at the beginning of the second week we are beginning the techinical design and Fabrication. And also we have just found out that we lost one of our sponsors yesturday so we are going to be even better then we have been in the past, we think they were holding us back after the dissapointing last year. Wee have enough talent to design the robot plus we have aa the parts from the kit and previous year. So my prediction for how we are doing is better then we have in the past. :cool:

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

That was EO's, right? What happened with that?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Done?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Log on to Autodesk Streamline 6. It installs with the inventor suite, or you can access it at projectpoint.buzzsaw.com/FIRST username is (public) with the ('s , and there is no password. The parts are under FIRST 2006 Competition -> Virtual Kit of Parts.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Team 1676 had a prototype 1 shooter! :yikes:
~ kit bot wheels
~ small sim motor
~ 1:1 gear ratio
~ Approximately 2000 rpm
~ 1.2 inches of ball compression



Results:
~ Really far.
~ Really fast. :D

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

dang... we have already got our launch systems going.
bam! 12 feet per second. this launcher is pretty awesome. and EXTREMELY accurate (spray range average of about 5 inches)
unbounded we got the launcher to shoot at a maximum of 25 feet per second. so this thing is dangerously powerfull (we even went and fired it at the principal of the school, and OF COARSE he volunteered)

it really stinks that we havent been able to get our closed loop to work, the sensors seem to like to return null values :)
and the camera? *shiver*

we have gotten pretty far along as far as planning goes, and we have a separate team of brainiacs (non-programmer/building but smart types) who are contemplating the posible strategies. im hoping for a good competion seaon this year!

(i hope i stayed on topic.... im not really good at that as my english papers would say)

EDIT: hey spiffizzle... keep going on that design. it looks really nice so far.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Cool! We are at the same step, except we went thru the prototypes 5 times..

Our structure was built out of the kop frame materials.. *SHIVERS*

We started with one KOP gear box, followed by two, followed by a repositioning, followed by using a drill motor.. THEN finally using the exact same set up as the one in your picture XD, except with 1 wheel.. Then we tried it with two... then...

._.;; hopefully we'll be able to finish our real launcher instead of playing around with those stuff.. :)

We are way behind.. T_T

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we have one prototype of a mechanism to pick up our balls from the ground that works like a dream. we are now prototyping the frame for that with smaller drums to be put on a ghost chasis that wont be used for more than prototyping. we will then make the final one. were doin pretty good. we are usin the kitbot with the kop transmission cause we are a rookie team and just tryin to get stuff figured out.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

My team has mocked up a thrower and collecter, but there is still some debate on how to transport the balls into the hopper.

Our kitbot is built and drive train is finalized.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We have our 'bot fully designed. We'll be using kitbot chassis, and should have a ball launcher and chassis built by the end of the weekend. All the rest of our fabrication is on hold pending receipt of parts from various suppliers. I estimate two weeks from Sat. untill completion, giving us two weeks of drive time.

We may order additional parts and create a practice bot after ship date.0

Programming...progresses. I should have a functional auton. by monday, and a stellar one by ship.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

yeah the prototype above uses most of last years transmissions parts and also there are gonna be alot more improvements but this was just proof of concept. the final version is gonna be with more rpms and with a belt drive to conserve space.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

A little update as to how far we have gotten...
we have integrated physics caluculations into the code, so that the shooter can actually track the goal.
and it scores 9/10 of the shots.

oh boy a great victory for the programming team tongight! we have autonomous shooting!

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we have only got the electronics started and the field built

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

umm...there was not enough pressure on the ball, so it only went about 2 feet...literally.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

I was wondering my Rookie Team was far behind. My teacher insists that we are right on schedule but it is hard to tell, knowing that there is so much to do and so little time left.

We have experimented on the devices to try and discover a system that would effectively shoot the 7.5 inch ball. We discovered that pneamatics would not be powerful enough and using springs was good idea but also did not work out so well in the end. We also tried using a pinball machine design, where a "hammer" would hit behind the ball and launch it forwards, but it again turned out not to be powerful enough. We are now trying to build a system with wheels and a motor to shoot the ball out similar to softball machine at batting cages.

For the electrical stuff, we have laid out the most of the electronics and created the circuits and have screwed everything down to the plywood.

We have built the chasis for the robot and started to play around with the camera, but are running into some technical difficulty.

We have yet to look into a hopper system and a system for picking up loose balls.

Thanks
Scott

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we had that problem with our gearboxes too...i figured out that the lock washer you put on the shaft to hold on the pinion was binding with the other gears...so we removed the lockwasher and just used the newer set screws that were included in the parts bag... try that and they shouldnt smoke.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

So far I've been programming like a mad man to get the camera up and running. I've gotten it to drive one of our old bots toward the goal and stop at a certain distance from it. Our ball shooter prototyping is done now and we'll begin working on the real one soon. I'm not too sure how progress is coming on our chassis but its atleast a day behind schedule :( I'll be starting to work on an inertial navigation system today :o

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

my team has so far completed a entire mock up and working model of a old baseball pitching machine. so far we have been able to easily through the balls at 30-35 feet. we also have our camera pretty much worked and programmed out. so we are on a good course. now if we could only get the real robot to preform just as well we might actually win something. i will hope to post pics. of our mock up for the benefit of others. until have a great time building. and remember to "aim low"!!!!!!!!!! :cool:

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

This happened to some of us last year, too. We tried trimming the circlip down so that it didn't rub, but ended up just taking it off. We went through the season without a problem. In fact, we just stripped the transmissions for the first time since we assembled them last January, and they were perfect inside -- no visible wear. These are nice transmissions (although our left-hand transmission still growls just like it did a year ago).

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Well what worked for our team last year was to have a fully functional prototype by the 2nd Saturday. At this agressive schedule we would be able to improve the final build and have time for our drivers to practice. I would suggest to any rookie team to remember the "KISS" terminology and use what's given to you as much as possible to keep you on a productive schedule.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

So far everything is working well. We're a little behind so we should have a completely functioning robot by Monday night.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

what's wrong with the kitbot frame?

we used it last year and played heavy defence, i saw no major wear.
(pictures are located at our website )
so far we have:

-a prototype shooter working on a large cim motor, but it's not fast enough and it could only score a goal from about 12 feet away and the max distance is a bit more than 30 feet. , it needs improvement.
-we built full size feild parts, center goal corner goals and ramp.
-we're arguing on design
-our custom wheels are being made, they'll be welded and ready to go by next week since we can't weld it with out mig welser, we'll need a tig welder.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

I don't know if anyone did this, but if you watch the assembly video from 2005 it says that the set screws will bind, and that you need to replace them with the included replacements...

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

So far we have a basic design. we are currently trying to get our robot to move around with out ruining anything. lol.

Has anyone had there speed controller (Victor 884) start smoking and melt?

Anyways we are a little behind, gut are amazed at what we have gotten done so far since we are just a rookie team.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

we were about to have the basic chasis running, BUT we had to do a major over haul of the chasis due to lack of ground clearance and we should be running by tomorrow, and will be able to finish on schedule.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We haven't fried one (that I know about) since last year. Was the smoke white or black?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

thats unfortunate. that design looked promising. hoepfully we can modify it saturday.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Yes, but even after you replace them, if that lockwasher is still in place, it will give you trouble. Eventually, through vibration or whatever, it will loosen, fall off, and 50% of the time, bind your gearbox. As Rick said, take it off. It will not make a difference. But yes, disregarding my rant, the setscrew must be replaced.

EDIT--------------------
Not sure if the 2006 ones need it replaced though. Would have thought they'd have fixed that bay now...

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

YAY! the magic smoke is back!! I haven't heard about any Victors smoking...you DO have it hooked up to the fuse block, right?

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

I believe that we connected it right. The positive wire from the 120amp cut off switch connects to the 40amp fuse then straight to the victors, right? :confused:

well right now we have disconnected the fuses so that it doesn't run for now. we ordered two more victors and are still waiting for those to come in.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

right now we pretty much have alot done but we have alot to be welded right now so we really aren't ahead of the game as we planned

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Please tell me you aren't drilling/cutting/filing metal above them? That will kill them really really nicely. Although the RC seems to withstand metal shavings in its pins, the speed controllers don't like them from what I hear.

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

Cad is 90% done
Chassis has been sent out for fabrication and welding
Drive trains are done
Ball capacity: 40

Re: how far have you gotten on your robot?
 

We got pretty far.

Ball capacity: 149. :D