Off-Season Projects

Originally Posted by lineskier

I am thinking of making it a woods-based capture the flag game.
Taking a lot from COD, trying to make it an addicting game with achievements that give you a distinct advantage.

I'd love to see a capture the flag type game! It would be so much fun to have a group of robots on a large playing field, with many obstacles blocking their way, and a terrain with varied heights, fighting it out for possession of a game piece! It would rely a lot on sensors and cameras, but that would make it more interesting!

Team 256 also does team-building activities such as going to Laserquest, Golfland, and having swim parties!

[JesseK]

We too are hosting an offseason event. That's the biggie for us.

In the meantime, we're going to learn to use our new mill with all of it's incredible tools/jigs. It's accurate to within 0.005, even less with alot of care, so the hope is to make some gearboxes using it. Perhaps we'll even make a 1-speed direct-drive WCD. After the problems we've had so far this season, I'm really liking the less parts that WCD has to offer. We might even upgrade our claw to a roller claw, depending on how things go.

Last year our offseason project was starting a 501c3. Good decision so far, tbh.

[LightWaves1636]

Cool, it's nice to know that teams keep going even when the season is technically over.

FRC 3320 is building a t-shirt cannon robot, or more of we just finished it.
The t-shirt cannon robot has three barrels and it launches three t-shirts sequentially, so one after the other. I would post a picture but that would be too much of a spoiler to an April event we're helping out with.

Now we're currently building a soda dispensing robot. It's quite self explanatory, basically a roaming vending machine, just you don't have to pay for the soda. We'll be done building it this week and then it's being shipped to be shown off for a contest. (Details will be released April 27 - 29 ).

Now does anybody out there use their FRC Control System for other projects?
Bonus question: Do you do it with LabVIEW? (Just out of curiosity)

[jwfoss]

FRC2168 intends to train more of our students on CAD and mechanical design. This we likely be done through refinement of our current sheetmetal 6WD, and the development of other drivetrain options for the future. We intend to look into the design of an 8WD, and a slide drive. The design intent will be adaptable so we will be prepared for various game challenges.

[tomy]

Team 3038 is planing to make crab drive from scratch and then depending on next years game we will either make if from scratch again or buy the whole thing from anymark

[davidthefat]

Personally, I am teaching myself assembly. So far, I have not even gotten to the actual assembly programming part of the book, I just finished on the intro the micro architectures and I must say "Oh My"... The years of programming I did in C++, I had no idea exactly how some stuff worked, but after that, my mind was open to everything. It is quite fascinating.

[dag0620]

Ok whats shaping up to be my 2011 off-season.

Up until June is preparation for WIWI. The entire team is getting ready. I personally will be playing around with the FMS, trying to find the best setup to run a regional quality Audience Screen this year, instead of just having the game logo up all the time.

Summer is quiet for the team, I usually pick a project I can work on my own with (usually programming). Haven't thought that out.

Fall is back to the competitions, and begging to prepare the shop for the 2012 season after the it was destroyed by the 2011 Build season (it's always a cycle).

[Garret]

My team is going to finish implementing our two speed swerve drive and then hopefully work with some new transmission ideas (Hybrid IVT or just a CVT).

[Duke461]

Originally Posted by Robby Unruh

I think our team leader decided we were going to try to recreate jump drive (by 461) this off-season, whether everyone else wanted to or not.

3266 still doesn't have a t-shirt cannon bot yet, but that's something my dad (mentor) and I have always wanted to do.

As a member on team 461, I can tell you that this is one of the best if not the best off-season projects you can do. Not only does it help your new members greatly by giving them feel of building a full scale robot, it also proves to be extremely helpful for build season. After we shipped the robot off, we took the lift and arm and slapped it on jump drive and we were ready to continue. This helped so much because we didnt have to worry about making a "practice bot". We didnt do so well at the competition, but that was completely unrelated to this. I cannot stress enough how good of an offseason project this is.
The original thread can be found here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=86171

[Lledargo]

I am planning on speaking to my mentor about taking an old car from our schools auto tech classes, and making it remote controlled. Then taking it to parades, car shows, and other events.

We also will be working on fundraising and student recruitment.

[LightWaves1636]

Originally Posted by Lledargo

I am planning on speaking to my mentor about taking an old car from our schools auto tech classes, and making it remote controlled. Then taking it to parades, car shows, and other events.

We also will be working on fundraising and student recruitment.

I like this one, it's very similar to what NI did, don't forget the failsafes.
Will you guys have video and photos?

[Lledargo]

Originally Posted by LightWaves1636

I like this one, it's very similar to what NI did, don't forget the failsafes.
Will you guys have video and photos?

Safety will of course be priority.

Also I still have yet to speak with my mentor about it, but if we do it ofcourse there will be pictures and videos.

unfortunately I don't know how likely it is, as we need permission to use a car, we need to design it, and need to have time to complete it. However we do fortunately have an extra CrIO from last years off season project, and being a veteran team we have plenty of motors, victors/spikes, servos, ect to work with.

[LightWaves1636]

Originally Posted by Lledargo

Safety will of course be priority.

Also I still have yet to speak with my mentor about it, but if we do it ofcourse there will be pictures and videos.

unfortunately I don't know how likely it is, as we need permission to use a car, we need to design it, and need to have time to complete it. However we do fortunately have an extra CrIO from last years off season project, and being a veteran team we have plenty of motors, victors/spikes, servos, ect to work with.

Awesome. You guys could probably get a cheap car off of craigslist. Also out of curiosity, are you a LabVIEW team?

[Lledargo]

Yes, we are a lab view team.
Also, I have been considering craiglist if we cannot take one of our schools old auto tech cars. However rather than buying a car, I have considered going to used cars dealerships and asking them to donate as well.