So how many of you actually have a working minibot/deployment?

[VKP]

Team 1899 does! =D about 4-5 seconds

[liam.larkin]

We are ready to go. Deployment minibot and all. My amazing programers have eliminated the need for my team to line it up. We use three IR sensors two that see the base and one up top that looks at the pole. We have used these sensors before too see how accurate they can be look at this video from last year. Obviously this isnt the same thing as this year but we were able to use this code and modify accordingly.
http://www.frc272.com/Ideas/2010_TargetAcquisition.wmv

[SteveGPage]

We decided to NOT build a mini-bot! Instead, we built a great deployment system, that will deploy a mini-bot on to the tower as long as we are +/- 5 inches off of center from the pole. We spent two weeks designing the specs for the deployment system, and then sent those specs to our FTC teams....

We let our FTC teams build the mini-bots, and we have a great one that we are bringing with us to our regionals!

A big THANK YOU! to the Ryken HS FTC LabVIEW Knights, for a job well done!

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by liam.larkin

We are ready to go. Deployment minibot and all. My amazing programers have eliminated the need for my team to line it up.

Nice! Our alignment system is rather lower tech than that...

[Chris is me]

We had a ~4.5 second climb with a battery that died immediately after on our "A" minibot.

Our Plan B should be a lot better.

[Joe Schornak]

Ours works. It stays on the robot through the match, deploys speedily, and climbs the pole quickly. We'll be tweaking the few remaining issues in coming days.

[orisenak]

>3 SECOND MINBOT!!!!!!!!
watch video with deployment+climb on this stream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVMd8sCR7gA

[Eagleeyedan]

We do but no way to deploy it.

[ROBOTS!]

we have 1.75, all we have to do to number 2 is put it together which will be done tomorrow

[Tyler Hicks]

You have to remember, the endgame value was much lower last year. Some teams figured they could score those last 2 shots in the last 15 seconds anyways. This year, the minibot's point value is definitely important and everyone should at least try (I would hope).

[pfreivald]

I think there were two (2) successful MINIBOT deployments at the RaChaCha Rally (a big thanks to 1511 for hosting!)

We did it once, and then tried something different where we thought that perhaps our MINIBOT might fall out... and it did... After that we didn't load it onto the robot again, happy that what we have works the way we want it to work.

Other than that and one team I didn't get a chance to see, quite a few attempts but nothing successful.

191 managed to put up two complete logos, though, with an autonomous ubertube scored -- very impressive!

[davidthefat]

We went to a scrimmage today, we got 30 points constantly every match. The drive was acting very very strange. It would not turn. The code is not the problem, I would assume it is mechanical because it runs 100% great on blocks, but when it goes into the ring, it does not turn.

[MrForbes]

By "turn" do you mean you could not steer the robot? or the wheels did not move at all? If it did not steer, that's probably because it's a drivetrain configuration that doesn't work well, like a 4wd (or non-drop center 6wd) long wheelbase bot with sticky wheel tread. Those don't turn.

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by squirrel

By "turn" do you mean you could not steer the robot? or the wheels did not move at all? If it did not steer, that's probably because it's a drivetrain configuration that doesn't work well, like a 4wd (or non-drop center 6wd) long wheelbase bot with sticky wheel tread. Those don't turn.

I am blaming the motor or gear box. It seems that it could not muster up enough torque to actually turn in place. We are using a nano gearbox this year I believe. Now I do not know the specifics, but the middle wheel is dropped 1/6 or 1/8 inch and it is a 6 wheel robot run by only one motor per side. I do not know if that is the problem (I am the programmer). I can ensure my code works. I put my seal of approval on it. It turns when moving forward (like how a car would turn), but zero point turning seems to fail. Our chain broke, so we left early today. I will investigate more tomorrow

[MrForbes]

With a system like that, you have to balance the center wheel drop, with the wheel tread traction, and you probably want to run two CIMs per side. With sticky treads and not enough drop, and only one motor per side, it would be likely to not turn on carpet.