New Zealand VEX
 

With our Official NZ VEX Regional in 9 days, It has been decided (by Myself and Phr34kr) that its about time we showcased the VEX Robots of New Zealand.

I'll start us off with the little I have,
If anyone else is on here from NZ please add your two cents =]

(Note: I've only labelled the robots i'm absolutely certain about so let me know who is who if you can)
(Also Note: The blurry photos weren't taken by me :rolleyes: a few teammates who shall not be named can't use my camera very well *coughRyanandKellycough*)

GCEC Junior Built Robot "Chuck Norris" 2008 -

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

GCEC - "Philup" 2008
(Designed by Girls, Taken over by One Junior Boy, Fixed at 2am the Morning of Competition by Girls)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

The Ricebot - Senior Boys 2008

(Tim is this the one you fell in love with?)

The Haulinator (Half of our Winning GCEC Alliance) -


The Haulinator in front while we fix up Twitchy in the Finals (just before we won)-


Winning Alliance - GC/EC


Rhys and The Haulinator, playing alongside SymbiOHSis - The Cute Guys of Onehunga High =]

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Good luck in your first regional. I know that there are going to be some very good teams coming out of New Zealand.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Nice robots, folks. Will any of you be making the L-O-N-G trip to Dallas, Texas, for the VRC World Championships? It would be great to see you in person.

Here's a picture of our Team 575, winner of the Excellence Award at the Vancouver, BC, Canada, Gladstone Open:

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Aw thank you =] you're kind

Why, yes =]
Our top 4 teams (so, everyone who makes finals) will be flying out to Dallas for the Champs. Phr34kr (when he gets home from school and posts) will likely be there considering his team's track record.
I also hope to attend. If either of our School's teams win we get to send 5 students. My team has 4 people and the other has 3, so if either of us make finals i'm likely to get there =]
i'm keen to meet you folks, too!

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Found More Photos =]

My Pride and Joy =D "Twitchy" Built by Girls, 2009. Second half of our Winning Alliance
(Apparently we've been Disowned by our other driver for the Regional because he doesn't like us using a chain lift system, cos it kept breaking on Twitchy V2 (next post) but it worked fine on V1 and will for Regional too!!)








And Another of The Haulinator

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Hi this is the seniors robot from SymbiOHSis (6 out of 8 wins:cool: )

Oh and no thats not the claw i fell in love with it was the one with the cable and the spring:P

Crazy wheel set up FTW (at least we turn now)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

It's awesome seeing some of the people from the summer workshops we hosted in these pictures. I can't wait to see the first regional. New Zealand really bring forth a lot of innovation to the playing field.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Bwahaha and one of the other two was me XD

er... i'd better hunt for that, i dont remember it ^^;;

I think we owe you guys something for getting us started those days =] tell your team thank you for me!

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Yeah, Thanks Eagle Engineering for kicking off the NewZealand Competitions.

Westlake Senior team did exceptional in the last competition (although we had our pneumatics play up). I dont have any photos For our robot, but I have a Ton from other schools (And videos). If you would like them posted, just reply yes or no.

How did your arm work for you in the last competition Tim? We are currently waiting on our medium sized chasis kit to come through, but it probably wont make it before the competition.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I probably have some of your robots lying around =] give me a few days to pull them out and upload them

sure, if you have some good photos that would be great =]

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I probably have some of your robots lying around =] give me a few days to pull them out and upload them

sure, if you have some good photos that would be great =]

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Our arm was just a liniear slide rail bolted together to the right length with a small to large gear doing the lifting (on a motor of course pretty simple but effective)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

^ EVIL ROBOT
Lol jk, i love it really
horrible to play against though ><

Did you only have one support beam either side, Tim??

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

As Jeff and Noah said, it's very nice to see familiar faces. Excited to hear how the Regional turns out, good luck.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Yea only one support beam either side but with a diagonal support beam formed into a triangle at the top for rigidity (and i got bored)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

ah, k. so no issues with bending/sliding etc?
our robot is fail atm lol >< gotta get it sorted for saturday :O

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

We are just fixing some oddities, and trying to fit into the size restriction :)

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Fitting in the sizing box is good :) I really did like MAG's sizing box though seeing as it was made out of wood it made it nice and square and accurate.:)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Haha agreed - the sizing boxes are horrible if they arent exactly 18" when ur robot is 17.75"
its now 17.9" ^^;; better shrink it lol

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Im still thinking along the lines of a 12ton press to shrink it lol:yikes:

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Yeah, I think our last measurement was around 17.8''. We are somewhat horrible in trying to fit in the size restrictions, every other competition they would let us off with 1/2 an inch extra, but I dont think it will happen this time

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

TIM!! I AM NOT SQUISHING MY ROBOT IN A 12 TON PRESS! NOR AM I USING A BIG HAMMER!!

yeah i dont think either of us would get away with it at regional - i'm gonna try to reduce ours a bit by then

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

What are you all going to do after the Vex competition? I know that our FRC practise thingy is out of the question, but what will keep us competing

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Design a new mini game (hopefully) and sleep
:D

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

The problem that I have is time and money....
Its been pretty full on for me (Becuase its practically me and this other guy building the robot). I dont know about you, but our school charges a 125 dollar fee to join Robotics, and although its worth it if we did the FRC and vex throughout the whole year, it wont be if after this competition its all over.

Im just hoping we can still have competitions monthly, or so. Maybe even have battle bot competitions

Its a costly sport, it seriously is.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

ah atm we have no joining fee (you just have to buy the $40 shirt) but we may introduce one to cover costs :o its fun though and gives me something to do with my time.:)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I have wanting to ask you...Who did you go to to get your shirts printed out?

Also are we having that boot camp this year?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

hmm i cant remember i know we brought the shirts from one supplier and took them somewhere else to get them printed and embroided ill have to get back to you on that one sorry.

seeing as the FRC was canceled im guessing no.

BTW how many people do you have on your team?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I'm gonna play others' minigames XD and sleep, yeah lol
and play more hockey :D

We havent done fees yet but are looking into 20-25 a term i think. and our shirts were $10 lol (we got cheapies, new ones will be more)
Tim where did you guys get ur shirts made/printed etc?

NO BATTLE BOTS!!!
I reckon we should just have the schools keep hosting VEX events in the off season personally

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

ah darn my question just got answered lol

no theres no FRC ergo no boot camp

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

There is no FIRST this year.

But there will be some off season Vex comps and in August we will kickoff with the new Vex game for the 2009-2010 season.

Also there will be a lot more teams from outside Auckland joining Vex so the Nationals in March 2010 should be really challenging.

Check with your mentor/teacher in charge for more details.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

thanks brent

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Yeah, $10 per shirt and over 20 hours of my time screen printing them all by hand =P

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I told you, i'd have helped if i'd known you were doing it ><

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Best day ever =]

(for those of you wanting to put a face to a name, that would be me in the middle haha)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

To the best of my knowledge, we are not holding a boot camp like last year, but we will be hosting an unofficial FRC regional July 9-10. That is the latest information that I have heard. We have been in continued contact with Johan Potgieter at Massey University to try and get this unofficial Build Season/Regional planned. As far as I know there is going to be an unofficial regional.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

You need a who am i pic Giselle =]
Good intro time!
Tim, meet Giselle. (Badge + Logo Designer)
Giselle, meet Tim. (Onehunga Builder)
you've both heard about each other =D

More Photos in a min~
[Or a few hours - upload glitches]

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Actually the Regional has been cancelled. they couldnt afford it. we were informed a few days ago

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

That is really unfortunate, I'm sure we'll be doing something though if possible.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

They're using the money they will have left over to fund 4 VEX teams to World Champs instead of the winning two.
Also will be doing the new VEX game in August(?) out of the same fund

If we did FRC they were going to have to cancel just about everything robotics for like 3 years (apparently)

With the economy crashing down around us, NZ just aren't in a position to do much more at the moment :S it sucks

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Expanding on Steph's comments a little...

Holding an FRC Regional in New Zealand would have cleaned out the New Zealand FIRST Trust completely leaving no money for future robotics endeavours until we found new sponsors, which in this financial climate is difficult to say the least.

I believe the aim of NZ FIRST at the moment is to continue working with VEX to expand and start up regionals in other parts of the country and include more schools. I don't think that any FRC competitions will be happening here for a while, unless we gain a lot of long term funding soon, and/or until the profile of FIRST has been raised.

Correct me if I'm wrong haha =]

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Right minus some?
as far as i'm told - there were a lot of issues even before the economy started crashing (with getting sponsorship) especially cos of that financial-planner-ish guy... Tim knows what i'm talking about.

It costs a lot of money to run FRC even in America, and 150% that in NZ at the best of times. I believe it was a struggle even before the conversions changed. I don't think it was ever practical to try and start FRC in NZ in such a small amount of time.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Tim, I have got only around 4-5 People in the team, but its really only me and this other guy that do all the work.

I have decided against uploading any of my photos or videos, because I cant speak for the other teams, and they may not agree with me posting their robots on the internet. Its only fair.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Fair enough - is why I have so far only posted my own Robot (except the one with a few Onehunga Guys in it)
We really need to encourage members of other teams to get on here :O

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

does anyone know if there is going to be a webcast?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I don't know if it is planned but I will send an email to the organiser to ask and let you know.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

thanks!

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Msg from Tim:
Symbiohsis has acess to 100mb upload/download servers in the states and if we can upload to them at massey would be more than happy to use them to stream the event

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

That's good.

The quickest way is for Tim's Teacher in Charge to talk to Johan directly about it.

I haven't had a reply from Johan but he is probably very busy getting the venue setup for the comp.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Even if we cant stream from the event we are thinking of uploading videos and pictures of the event to the sever and posting the address on CD to show others the regional in NZ, we have access to plenty of space on the severs so if any teams can we would be happy to receive footage of matches and the event from them as well (we will hopefully have a few people recording matches and taking photos but it depends on the resources available to us to how much footage we will be able to record.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I'll have my video camera there filming whenever i'm not building/driving/programming and would be happy to contribute. We'll have at least 2 or 3 cameras there =]
I'm sure the same can be said for most other teams

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I have received confirmation that symbiOHSis is allowed to stream the event from our pit area. I just need Tim to come online to post the times the stream will be available. all going well the stream will be available at http://stream.symbiohsis.com just don't try to go to it at the moment.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Thats brilliant! thanks for that!
i'm sure Tim will be on tonight sometime (he always is =])

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

oh im sure he will be. hes meant to be reminding me to do something. no idea what though... while im waiting ill upload incriminating videos of him to youtube :D

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

is this the one of Tim acting like a robot? link me when its up :D

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

thats the one indeed. will probably take a while. stupid slow NZ internet. :(

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Brilliant XD he told me it isn't him :yikes: somehow i didn't believe it.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Seriously im going to report that video. SO you we will hopefully be streaming the event, if anyone has 1.3mp web cams please bring them with them to the event, and Aciid do your ict homework or you will be the only programmer/webmaster in the world to fail ict twice in a row.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Sorry, I dont have any 1.3 MP cameras.

Big day is coming up soon, and we still dont have auonomous!
Our main prblem is that we dont have any shaft encoders, etc, only limit and bumper sensors

Could someone help me in trying to do some autonomous, even if you give me measurements.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Make it simple, without encoders you will have an even tougher time making an autonomous with drive (took our junior team like 10 hours (with the field) remember drive slowly you don't want to have to take into account slip.

EDIT: seems like streaming has been given the go ahead by massey :)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

my webcam sucks but will check my brothers.

as for auto, we just went

Arm Lift 1.5s
drive .5s
eject 3s

it does great =]

and Tim, i'll give positive feedback to combat ur report :D

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Tim thats good you can stream it.

You have probably have thought of this already but on your website could you put some notices reminding people we are a day ahead of large parts of the world particulary a lot of the States.

This way they won't tune in a day late.

I don't have a webcam so sorry can't help.
But do you have any video grabber hardware for your computer because I thought there might be a video feed you could tap?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Hi we do have web cams but they are not 1.3mp ones unfortunately, our webmaster spent a lot of time last night setting up the site to get the streaming to work and apart from a little lag (due to slow uploading) it seems to work well. there will be a new thread created informing the users of Chief Delphi of the stream and the time delay.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

im doing it now. and if you report the video ill re upload it :)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Tim, I played with my digital camera, and I found out that it can also act as a webcam (its a 4.1 MP camera). I have tested it and it is confirmed to be working.

The problem with my camera is that it eats through two AA batteries very easily. At the moment i dont have any AA batteries. That might be a problem.
otherwise, if anyone has a 3V DC charger (its a very small head size) then we could forget about batteries and run it off the main power supply (the only thing im worried about is that the charger anyone supplies may supply too much current).

if your interested, I will definitively bring mine.

Edit, my video camera (which i have a rechargeable batteries for and a DC power supply) can act as a webcam, the downside is that it needs a firewire port.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I've procured a 1.3mp webcam for us to use so that should be good. now i just hope massey has a decent internet connection for minimal lag to the server. with my private testings i have about a 1-2 minute lag :eek:

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

So do you want me to bring my own, or not? it would be nice if we had a camera for both fields.

just wanting to confirm.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

bring your own as well for redundancy or we might be able to rig something up and have multiple broadcast stations :) im quite sure my server could handle that

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Okay, Do you have a firewire port? Even so, I need to find the driver for my camera...

I will bring my digital one. The internet connection at massey should be fast, its a university connection and they normally have a direct link to the network, or even fiber optic link.

Also; what name would I be looking for on your team T-shirts?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

ahh right, the laptop im going to be using to stream doesnt have a firewire port.

ill be wearing the shirt that says aciid_trojan ;)

and yeah, im hoping for some form of fiber with direct connection to global gateway *drools and wanders of to nerd heaven*

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

fraid i cant help with cameras, sorry.
will be videoing lots though and they'll go on youtube. or maybe i'll sell them :D

is it bad that i understood that? XD

If is running from SymbiOHSis pits what will it be filming?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

not at all. nothing like downloading things on a direct connection to the global gateway. "linux isos" fully downloaded in minutes.

and it will be filming us frantically running around screaming that we've broken the robot or something like that, hopefully we can put a camera closer to the fields too :)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

could always film the big screen they're feeding onto?
or just h4x the feed (wouldn't put it past you guys)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

omg
you just gave me the best worst idea ever

packet sniffing ftw :D

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

LMFAO! You would!

might be a bit of work to stop the uni student computers from the network accessing it though

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Im sure The organisers wont mind if you could get clloser to the field. It has to be done, one way or another.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx1oUgTDouM

:D phr34kr pretending to be a robot

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Please don't forget to post links to your videos on the VEX forum, too. www.vexforum.com

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Regional Is going epic =] will be putting up some videos on youtube soon. will link you after

also -->
NZ Robotics on Breakfast this morning
http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/bre...o?vid=2570718#

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Anyone keen to start trading video footage and photos from regional?
I'm not sure what the best way to do this is, I was thinking of creating a Picasa album for you guys to browse and download what you like from there, sound good?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

does Picasa do video too?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Not sure, possibly

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Some one should just make a web site to make all the video available to download, im sure if someone talks to aciid hosting can be arranged.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Good idea. He sure has enough servers, too.
NZ VEX Website here we come?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

It would be great if we had a nz vex/frc forum, with personal team pages, etc

maybe a wiki and coppermine gallery, etc

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Or even just a website with a small forum on it if we want, with links to the Team Websites (when everyone gets them) and a photo/video gallery etc where people can just download or save what they want

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

CD is pretty busy, and heavily FRC-oriented, but you can do nearly everything you are asking for at vexforum.com, including posting unlimited pictures. Have you asked the Vexforum admins if they could host team Web pages?

Your New Zealand community is a little small to really create a community, and I'd hate to have you go off into your own small world. If the VRC world is going to achieve CD-like critical mass, I, for one, would like to see it center around one virtual on-line home, like Vexforum.

(Nothing at all against CD, by the way. It's just that as much as the admins open CD up to all robotics programs, it is first and foremost a home for FRC teams. That's OK, but it doesn't leave much for FTC or VRC teams.) (I <heart> CD.)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

If I heard right at the regional there is going to be a New Zealand Vex website hosted under the Massey ME Website

http://seat.massey.ac.nz/vex/ seems to have basic info and is maybe where the Vex site will be?

I think it is meant to be up and running in a few weeks.


An email to Johan will probably be able to clear it up.

If we can we probably should try and keep NZ Vex info / forums together as much as possible so people don't miss things.

So if someone wants to setup a photo /video site on a temp basis maybe keep in mind moving to the Massey site later.

Or do people want to have multiple NZ Vex sites?
I am thinking maybe teams could have their own websites but have a single Vex forum point?

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I think when they were talking about the VEX site off of Massey it was for their photos. Correct me if i'm wrong but I don't think they said anything about Forums etc

as for the VEX Forum bit, the site is all well and good, I have nothing against it, but I think we were looking at something less formal (like CD) and something where you don't have to search or browse for hours to find stuff purely from NZ

Or we could have a photobucket/picasa type site with a publicly known username and password that we can link to from other sites.
Just gotta have a few people moderating it to keep it appropriate

Or a few people moderating an account and adding photos others put up (if anyone knows a site you can do that from)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I know of a way to have a forum/gallery, wiki and website integrated into one package (I.e the username remains constant throughout every section). I can set it up on a free webhost for testing purposes, but if we are talking permanent then we will have to all chip in a few dollars, or possibly talk to Dr. Johan about a central "nz vex hub"

We could of course have a CD style homepage (As in the VBulletin portal page is the homepage). Give me the heads up and I can do it.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

It sounds like a brilliant idea to me but I'm not so sure if most teams will be keen on paying for it. Maybe we should see if theres a free way of doing it, first?
:D or maybe we should see if Mr SymbiOHSis ((is it bad that my spell check has given up trying to correct that word?)) Webmaster can get one free like he can everything else
(semi-kidding)

The VBulletin would probably be the simplest way of doing it? Does it cost anything?
That could also get us our own version of 'CD-Media' for our photos, yes?

Correct me if I'm wrong, here.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I could provide hosting. (as SCROSSLEY-GCEC said, i have access to way too many servers :D) when i get a minute away from internals and what not ill see what i can whip up.

because i think the idea of having a central hub for NZ vex stuff is really important.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

I agree with both points. I think it's important that New Zealand teams stay in contact with the international robotics community, but I also think that it will be beneficial for teams to have a means of contacting teams specifically within our little national community.
As FIRST is just starting out in NZ, I think that building up a community where our teams can swap notes, get to know each other better and help each other out will in turn help the progression of the organisation in schools and local communities here.

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Okay guys, I worked on this after school, and I managed to get a user bridge (I.e same user login for both the main site and the forums)

The main site example : http://nzvex.x10hosting.com/joomla
The forum site example: http://nzvex.x10hosting.com/phpbb


I have not bothered cleaning up the main page, because I dont have the time. Once I am able to intergrate the forum into the Homepage, then we can test it out, etc. I am also thinking about adding a wikipedia page in it, but that will be for next week.

NOTE: please register on the homepage, as registrtion is disabled on the forums (your username, etc will be automatically transferred to the forum, and automatically logged in) (I hope)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Great! =] Thanks so much they look brilliant. If I get you a few links could you stick them in when you clean it up? Or if you like you could give me the log in info and I can help out with it, seeing as I probably have more time on my hands than you

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

Um, yeah sure. I will PM you the user login, etc. Have you tested out the user bridging? encountered any sideaffects, etc?

As for putting time and effort into this...Is it worth it, if in the end we are just going to restart it and move it to a permanent server (We could move the whole database/s, but thats over my head ATM)

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

We don't really know yet if it'll be moved - we could always keep it anyway. kinda like USFIRST Forum vs CD
easy enough to just link to it from the main one

Whats the bet Aciid would know how to move it? :p

Re: New Zealand VEX
 

A very high chance. if not, it only takes 30 minutes of google searches and 2 minute youtube video to find out how to do it.

If this is the case, then moving it to Aciid's server would be the best bet, and then we can later suss things out with Dr. Johan (which each and everyone one of NZ vex competitors owe our souls to) and buy a domain name. Something likewww.nzvex.co.nz