[cglrcng]

How are you spending your last day?

Who had time to read or post ahead of time....

Well, I 'll shorten it up a bit to how did we spend our last day, as mine ran well into 48 hrs. plus and then some. The preceding sleepless weeks are just a blur.

Monday night 2/22 at quitting time on a school night @ 8:30 PM we ran into USB connection issues with both driver station laptops (again), which led to longer hours (and there was also that brand new failed CTR SRX Speed Controller in the left side stack), to get testing completed concerning comp bot functions tested. (No connection present on both? And what is that incessant clicking...Oh, a breaker, and that 1 speed controller is a bit warm too!)

After a quick replacement of the SRX w/ a new spare, and a fast rewire of the CAN, it works perfectly (we will get the other out of the stack tomorrow and send it in for a replacement....These days 1 of 10 purchased isn't too bad).

We charged up & left the comp bot pneumatic system pressurized to 120 psi @ 11:00 PM...Let's see how sealed up it really is when we return tomorrow at Noon.
___________ Bag Day 2016
After arrival home at about midnight (finally eating dinner @ 1:30 AM)....Really tired here, I tried to, but I just can't sleep, still so much to do before bag time tonight, so I got up and wrote a seven page punch list of team things left to do including a full and detailed personal plan that extends through my own personal CMP Volunteer field assignment.

The last day started very well at arrival at the school classroom at noon as I rode in w/ George Williams - Team 60's Lead Mentor, we discussed together on the ride in & both expected that pressure leak down 12 hours later would be fairly significant and he stated "if 5 lbs. or any pressure was left in the system, he would be quite happy"....He looks and says wow, there is still 60 PSI on the gauge!

I said, "George, you are looking at the working pressure gauge, I see 90 Psi over here....No I say, my head was cocked at the wrong angle, the high pressure gauge still reads 105 PSI...We are sealed up super tight!" My day starts well.

I should have taken that as the omen (of what a great ending day), that it really was, since someone was lurking right there in the background, OK, his brother was with him also)....On to the long punch list and the plan of getting a hundred things done today, the shop, classroom & the adjoining Stronghold building woodworking patio cleaned up using avail. mentors as team leaders, & team students as worker bees, getting to my teeth cleaning 4:00 PM "bag day dental appointment" completed.

OK, by 3:30 PM, I forgot all about the dental appointment (the punch list cross off's were going so well), until someone else mentioned their own child's earlier dental appointment at 3:46 PM) Afterall- they only sent me 4 texts in the last week, and I only responded 4 times that I'd be there (who sets up a bag day dental appointment anyway months ahead of time?)

Thank's Jody for accidentally reminding me and running me down there. Afterward, finally food in my belly sometime w/ George later during a rare leisurely dinner away from the shop, etc., and some planned 2 robot practice (shooting together to compare arcs, photo & video recording after 5:30 PM down a long hall full of obstacles & defenses to help us in the next 2 week programming and practice bot sessions), when most team students/parents would arrive on the usual annual bag day evening to "helping the fabrication & programming team out" by the usual incessant & bag ending "crowd around the comp bot"), and make good use of their manpower.

Everything was going so well, almost forgot my appt., we took the time out for that long awaited meal, the team leaders and students had that hall all set up w/ carpet, balls, defenses, etc., the classroom, machine shop and patio were pretty clean and ready when we returned from dinner (Thank you Mrs. Jody Schanaman & Your Whole Clan!)....The clock was fast clicking down, fabrication was doing final arm fitting (boulder PU and PTO Tower climber). Programmers were programming/coding and connections actually held. They were working together with the suspected drivers on button / stick selections, etc. and functions were getting a first & final test.

I and Augie flashed the new KauiaLabs NavX board (TY Nate & KauaiLabs), and calibrated it without a hitch, so we could get before and after results during the evenings planned driving practices on the comp bot & practice bot as this would be the first (and last), time in 6 weeks (or all season no doubt), that we would have access to 2 actual working robots at the same time in the very same place. (This years prototyping/design season seemed never ending, and "permanent robot fabrication" as a result started later than usual). Oh, they built plenty, then disassembled and rebuilt again, and again. And again.

Then Bag Night 10 PM showed up, and we were still not practicing (. That super sealed up pneumatic system we were so proud of earlier in the day started acting funny as shooter refused to shoot, shifters refused to shift (both the drivetrain and the PTO shifters).

Then of course there was that nasty large air leaking sound immediately after the compressor turned on and failed to pump the system beyond 20 PSI at the solenoid block through the upper main vent tube in the block as soon as code was introduced to the shooter after a single pair of new hoses and fittings were earlier in the afternoon introduced to the drivetrain shifters that was somehow forgotten by the fab team to be installed on Monday night.

We were not using 2 of the solenoids on that 6 solenoid block, there is a 4 solenoid block on the practice bot...So, off that came and the switchover was completed by 11:00 PM. (Of course that led to the practice bot being out of the comparison practice and pics sessions also, along with the comp bot).

We will get that 6 solenoid block cleaned, repaired & installed on the P. Bot tomorrow. Comp bot pneumatic system is back up and operating again properly (still zero comp bot practice time, as the comp bot is still up on the table and the wheels have yet to hit the floor, though they have been run and that bot can run or crawl/climb)...My mind wanders....Where on the field will we ever be able to use that high gear "warp speed" George and the fabrication team designed into that drivetrain?!!!) I utter right after a programmer shows us what it will really do in both low gear and high during the drivetrain and PTO shifting demonstrations and full function tests.

General Lee vs. Jumping Frog videos (after watching earlier week zero events and other's youtube practice vids flash in my brain).....We certainly built a General Lee!

We weighed the bot (numerous times), earlier - 104 lbs. and change (up from an earlier joked about exactly 98 lb. weakling), adding a properly weighed skid plate and our sponsor billboards later, may just get us to that magic marker of 119+ and keep it (added ballast for traction), all very low and balanced, and that boulder collecting/climbing elevator hook arm can be used to transfer weight front to rear, rear to front on the fly and on instant driver demand.

Time to set the arm CIM motor worm drive gearbox & encoder to zero degrees, bring the arm to starting config. height, install the chain and finally test the functions.

It is on and adjusted perfectly all 5 chains (1 Arm, 2 PTO and 2 climb elevator), are in perfect adjustment...T- minus 30 minutes (not quite a task easy to accomplish, it just takes up valuable time, and fitting on the bot w/ all those sensitive electronics jammed carefully inside 1/3 of the front of the robot makes it that much more difficult and time consuming and constantly vacuum noisy), it reads zero degrees. It is well inside the frame rails (in proper starting config.), and lead programmer is behind the stick...everyone clear...Going Down! (SLAM!) Move it up, no not that way, the other way.

OK, I thought it just may take 2 CIM motors George says (a student measures the existing space up and says, there is just enough room to add another CIM to the other end of the gearbox...George said, see that gear, it is there to do just so, and we plan out together during the 3 mins. it took to get that gearbox out, to add another speed controller, it is already added to the code before that bag went on, and at 11:58 PM they were adding the seal and signing the sheet....The last frantic moments though went like this.....(Take that gearbox off, strip out that NavX board, Gary ....Please disconnect that encoder)....No practice, put the defenses back on the patio, the robot wheel treads are still pristine and have yet to touch the floor without a plastic bag protecting them for the next 2 weeks...But, we found our 2 weak points before it was bagged that usually show up on Thursday morning Practice day at our first Regional...The robot isn't exactly "first in line inspection ready" yet, but it will be within our unbag hour...And it isn't broken from too much defense practice, used up, or unknown, either!

It is now sitting lonely in a dark deserted room and not breathing very well as it is wrapped in plastic..... Not to be seen by human eyes again for at least 2 weeks....See what you get for being a bad robot on bag night? I said,....just as the lights in the room were turned out.

I'm actually relieved that they didn't have time to break it going over our wooden defenses, as time to repair it expired very quickly. It is well designed and it will serve them very well in Stronghold this year. It will be a very trusty steed I suspect.

Hey, who wants to play "Storm The Castle, Capture The Flag...And Jump The Moat, and Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Rock Wall" all at the same time?.....The General Lee has nothing on us I will predict.

I'm no CarNack.....But I will predict that much, and that lots of replacement pcs will be sold by AndyMark and others this year. Now...Back at it again in yikes...Just about an hour. There is still tons of programming & practice to do.