We did not attend a scrimmage this "Zero week" as we are hours away from our nearest held, but last Thursday the comp bot was disassembled down to the drivetrain again, parts and pcs went across town for the powdercoating (actually our entire team took off Friday completely for V-Day)...Too tired to even go to dinner, we were at home. Rest was needed.
Saturday AM the powdercoating took place, and then all pitched in & re-assembled and tested, then dropped off the competition bot, tools, charger and bat's at our practice field a few blocks away from the shop. Sunday AM we had the programmer busy on the Auto coding and fine adjustments & (within an hr. that was set and corrected and perfect (as long as the bot was pre-charged w/ air properly of course), and it was hitting 100% high goal nothing but air), then we had a 10 hr. very complete shakedown session, and that compressor surprisingly is still working just fine.
I think throughout the 10 hr. shakedown, at least 80% of the student team members showed up & drove sometime today (our field is in a vacated elem. school library area...Thank you Mr. Jacks!), w/ empty bookshelves lining 90% of the walls). Carpeted floor, one high goal half, one low goal, and a half field real alum. truss like the actual
FIRST field uses, and plenty of other open space to chase that big rolling ball. (Two quite tender knots on my head right now tell me that the students (and adults), on the field this year, would be better to either not wear a stupid hat like I did...Or at least make it a certified hard hat this year!) That truss is hard!
Many of those that drove today had never in their lives ever driven the bot, and many never a wheel and a stick at once (sometimes it showed, but each became better very quickly, and some were instant matches right off the bat and had practiced/played together in the past).
They beat those shelves (and the bot), up pretty good practicing everything they could from inbounding into the bot (rolling into it from the shelf, tossing into it, throwing into it), chasing down & ball pickups from every angle possible and against everything in that room imaginable (I actually think when they have solid flat walls on a real field it will be that much easier, but that constant interaction w/ field and room elements, was much like facing opposing & defending bots all day & night). High goal shooting 90%+ all day, low goal delivery pretty much perfected now also, passing, pushing, and running on a 2.5 min. clock, then switching out drivers. Lots of practice was had by all.
The most amazing thing was (no matter how much I grimaced all day, whenever they slammed it into something hard, most often w/ the ball pickup out and chasing hard, and sometimes w/ the ball tucked up tightly & neatly held inside the frame perimeter and at full speed...Because, of course, I personally want to see that well built, working & colorful thing go into the bag "undamaged on Tuesday night", be fully ready to just be inspected and pass right off the bat, and hit the Field for a full Thursday practice session at the first Regional we attend in over a month),....It needed a good hard shakedown...and it certainly received it today!
Happy to say....No breakdowns all day (though I was looking for another compressor in the shop tonight just in case we wore that 1 out...I found it! Let's order another also please, OK?)
Just a whole bunch of compressor cooldowns and regular battery changes...A bit of code adjustments, some out of the box "let's see what this will do" testing....And a heat gun aided "tusk angle" adjustment to get that within the 20" extension maximum safely, and a wee bit better mouse tra....err, "ball trap".
Usually, the hardest thing is getting the "good auto" programming & then the on field timed reality of it, down pat and repeatable. That was actually the easy part this year w/this very robust / and very repeatable design.
Then to top all.....they went off this evening...(I'm looking at only 48 hrs. to go.....and maybe 10 real hrs. of real working shop time left or so)...And they start the not so easy...."Over the Truss tosses by hand" & attempting to catch, some not so well aimed & some pretty hard landings of the ball into, on, in, & off of the bot...about 20 or so good hard tosses....I'm really grimacing now, as you can possibly imagine right?.....YES....errr, Nooooo! (George...Our industry mentor, is cool as a cucumber...saying, hey, I'd rather it break now then later). Me...I'm freaking out and looking for the door!
But, they actually got it down pretty good catching a few early, & 4 of the last 5 pretty hard throws, and no damage at all to the toy. (We needed to find out what was best..."tusks" open or closed, or..."when to close actually" for best catch timing, to keep that ball from bouncing in & then out again). Or better yet if we even feel comfortable in attempting the catch later on...I now say...Go for it! (But, pick and choose based on ball height please! Stay away from those rocket shots to the moon.) That test gave me a headache....Or was that the 2 good truss hits to the head I took a little earlier?
Overall, it was as "very" intense a shakedown, as I personally have seen us do before bagging, so far. And everyone around here now seems pretty relaxed after today and extremely proud of this years build.
Still lots to do...More work to accomplish (and a ton of practice time left w/ the "not as pretty bot" but, functionally the same, left to go in the next month!) A new A/M P.U. gearbox is on the way for the practice bot, and we are practicing for another month w/ a near duplicate. Oh, and a shop or 2 to clean up. BIGTIME!
We appreciate those vids & tips on the game (and the elements & game strategies listed that you perceived & witnessed), from those that attended scrimages this "zero week" weekend, and we will be reviewing & discussing many of them tomorrow and in the days to come. Thank you!
For those that have early Regionals...Good Luck to all....And we'll see you in PHX. & L.V. & hopefully St. Louis!
