New team, 2391
 

Hey guys, I just wanted to introduce myself into the forum to become a little more familiar with the FIRST community, first of all I was introduced to FRC back in 2004 when my brother joined it (team 1402 Freedom F.O.R.C.E.) at the time I was in middle school so all I could do was watch. Then on my Freshman year, I joined and then had switched schools and wasn't able to continue. So I went 9th-10th grade with no FRC, and now I just started my Junior year in a new school that has the FIRST program, funny thing is they started just as I got here (Broken Arrow, OK). So now I'm involved in it, once again. I have some experience with FRC since I went to all the competitions with my brother, but my team is practically new to the FRC world. Anyways, we will be attending OKC regionals, and with our exceptional robot (I'll post pictures as soon as I can) we hope to have some good runs at the event. Also, I have a quick question I apologize if this has already been answered, I just thought I might as well use this thread to ask. What material are you guys using for the bumpers, because we can't seem to find something all that great, other than a BBQ cover we found at Lowes that seems to be somewhat like the sample material. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any advice given

- JGA

Re: New team, 2391
 

The material most teams use for bumpers is Cordura. You should be able to find it locally. Its really durable and is used in a lot of sportswear.

List of Cordura Suppliers

Welcome to Chief Delphi & good luck this season!

Re: New team, 2391
 

We can't find the sample material around here, but I'm guessing someone else has it, maybe ACE.. Anyways, here are the pics, our robot sure isn't the prettiest but it's not as crappy as it looks, we have 4 CIM motors, 6 wheel drive, and we run a little over 8fps. Either way, it's finished and at regionals we hope to prettify it a little more.




Attachment 6334

Attachment 6335

Attachment 6336

Re: New team, 2391
 

That's a very respectable bot. I can't tell from the pics exactly what it does, but it looks well made.

It might be a little late now, but Cordura is usually mail-order. We didn't find it at one of the specialty fabric shops in our area. The official FIRST supplier is Seattle Fabrics, I believe that's the name. We've had good service from American Home and Habitat, ahh.biz - they were a buck or two higher than Seattle this year, but we've gotten our orders in 3-5 working days.

Re: New team, 2391
 

Looks to me like they can control the trackball on the ground and herd with their extendable PVC arms up front, and they have a 3rd cylinder somewhere up on top of the bot, most likely for knocking the ball off the overpass. Looks like a simple, clean bot that could be a reliable, consistent performer.

We've also used ahh.biz for our Cordura fabric, with good success.

Re: New team, 2391
 

You might want to cover your radio better, the antenna is flimsy, so..... just a suggestion.:]

Re: New team, 2391
 

I agree about the radio modem.

We had numerous issues last year from the antenna getting broken. Even after replacing the antenna twice, it still never worked right and we had to buy another.

Put it back into the robot better where there is no chance of impact from falling trackballs or robot appendages coming into contact with it.

Re: New team, 2391
 

Yes we have the PVC's in the front to have some control of the ball, and a huge 23 inch cylinder in the back that knocks the ball over. And yes the radio it turns out I was the one that designed that part right there, we were in crunch time and we simply had no other place to secure it to. But it's been shipped so I'll have to think of something at the regional, maybe placing it under the lexan hardbox instead of ontop, or would that not be allowed and or interfere with the signal?

P.S. Thanks for the comments and advice guys, really appriciated

-JGA

Re: New team, 2391
 

23" cylinder? A typo hopefully, there is no FIRST legal cylinder with a 23" stroke.

Overall it looks like a solid robot, especially for a rookie team

The chain tension looks like it is alright now, but over the course of a regional the chains may stretch a bit, I don't see any tensioners in the picture, that may be something you want to think about.

Re: New team, 2391
 

Lol no not a 23" stroke I meant to say the cylinder itself is about 23". And yes we were planning on putting some tensioners but we didnt have time, eventualy at the competition we will have to run a bolt through the frame with some PVC rollers to make some tension or maybe even take out a link if there's enough stretch.

-JGA

Re: New team, 2391
 

the two inch bore and 24 inch cylinders are allowed by first from bimba.

Re: New team, 2391
 

Correct but 23 != 24

Looks like you guys are definitely on top of things 2391. Good luck at your competition(s)

Re: New team, 2391
 

Yup that's the one 24" from bimba, I knew it was somewhere around the 20's, thanks for the correction. Well, I'm glad you guys think its a good enough machine, because me and some of our members really want to make it to Atlanta.

-JGA

Re: New team, 2391
 

If you want to make it to Atlanta i would suggest scouting if you did not already have that in mind. If get into the top eight you need to know which teams are good and bad, scouting is more effective in the sense that you know which teams are capable of what. Also you should try and compare your notes with other teams if you are slightly doubtful of your data.

Re: New team, 2391
 

Hmm, well no I haven't thought about that yet, I've been to quite a few competitions in the past but I never really understood the ranking and seeding system. So at regionals, if you place atleast 8th, you get to be one of the picking teams for finals? And if so, say we placed 3rd place overall at the end, would we get a slot at nationals, or do you have to be one of the winning alliances to get an automatic slot for Atlanta?

Re: New team, 2391
 

There are a few ways to qualify for Atlanta form a Regional. You can either be on the winning alliance (3 teams), win Rookie Allstar, win Chairman's (rookies not eligible) or win Engineering Inspiration.

Page 5 and 6 of section 9 of the manual detail that ranking scheme and alliance selection process. If you have furrther questions after reading that feel free to ask here.

Re: New team, 2391
 

If you're at least 8th, you automatically have a chance to pick, if you want it (you may still be picked by someone else-accept and you're with them, decline and you retain your own choices...). However, because top 8 teams usually are picked, you will probably get a chance to pick your alliance if you're better than 12th-13th or so.

Re: New team, 2391
 

wow quite a few options and ways to get there then. Well my brother says since we have a pretty good robot, granting the fact this is our first year, and the fact that we have some pretty good drivers, we MIGHT make it. Me personally, when I think about it OKC regionals consists of mostly first year teams, so we all have a good shot at making it. Another thing, when we were making some practice runs we'd use the bot for a good 20-30 mins before we went under 10v and had to change bat, but a few times we recharged and the dang thing never charged, it sat there for 2 hours and all it did was go from 75% to 50% idk what it was but it was rather frustrating
(thanks for all the help guys)

-JGA

Re: New team, 2391
 

Remember that the Rookie All-Star Award is about a lot more than just the robot. It's more like a mini-Chairman's award for rookies. With as many rookies as there are this year in regionals like Oklahoma, Minnesota and Hawaii, the competition for that award is going to be tough.

Scouting is important for several reasons. If you are in the top 8 and are picking, you need to know who to pick. You also need to know if it would be wise for you to decline a pick from a team rated higher than you. If you're not an alliance captain but are picked in the first round, you need to be able to help the alliance captain with the third choice. But even before you get to the alliance selection, scouting is important so you will know the abilities of your partners and opponents in the qualifying rounds. Knowing that may be the difference in whether you're a picking team or not.

Re: New team, 2391
 

Well then, I'm guessing we'll need a portion of the team to go scouting writting down pointers and what not, and then review it all at the end. Is that something like what you guys do? And how many people would you recomend sending out for scouting?

-JGA