973 Remote Assistance and Mentorship Program (RAMP)

[Monochron]

I haven't checked any of your stuff out before until today. I just wanted to say that the CAD videos you post are exactly what our team needs. We are low on mechanical mentors and being able to see detailed designs of different types of mechanisms with someone able to explain how everything moves together is a huge help. I've got these queued up to watch tomorrow

[AdamHeard]

Two new videos up!

After three years of shooting, I'm hoping it's an arm/elevator game (I did make a similar argument that was clearly flawed last year though...).

One video on COTS bearing implementations for an elevator, so supplement last year's videos on Cascade elevators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_HG...ature=youtu.be

One video on COTS arm implementations to update the one from this fall now that some new COTS items are out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SRy...ature=youtu.be

[AllenGregoryIV]

That's awesome Adam, I'm hoping for a arm/lift game as well. I'm tired of shooting stuff. Thanks for posting these videos they are a great resource for teams.

[Jared]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Two new videos up!

After three years of shooting, I'm hoping it's an arm/elevator game (I did make a similar argument that was clearly flawed last year though...).

One video on COTS bearing implementations for an elevator, so supplement last year's videos on Cascade elevators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_HG...ature=youtu.be

One video on COTS arm implementations to update the one from this fall now that some new COTS items are out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SRy...ature=youtu.be

Thanks for the videos, they've helped me get more into design in the past seasons, and they're always full of great information.

I have a few questions about your elevator design. How much clearance are you putting in between the round surface of the bearing and the aluminum it's rolling on? Also, how difficult was it to get the tolerances needed to make it roll smoothly?

EDIT: Why did you decide to go with cascaded over continuous?

Once again, a huge thank you to Adam Heard and FRC 973 for these fantastic resources. Your contributions to the FIRST community, especially the low resource teams, have made all the difference in getting everybody to a higher level of competitive play.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Jared

Thanks for the videos, they've helped me get more into design in the past seasons, and they're always full of great information.

I have a few questions about your elevator design. How much clearance are you putting in between the round surface of the bearing and the aluminum it's rolling on? Also, how difficult was it to get the tolerances needed to make it roll smoothly?

EDIT: Why did you decide to go with cascaded over continuous?

We've done 0 and had it work, there is some slop in the holes interfacing with the bolts that help.

You can add more if you're concerned with manufacturing tolerances.

It should be pretty easy to hold a few thou accuracy on manual mills and routers.

As for cascade versus continuous... A lot of reasons. Just in rigging alone it's FAR easier. The videos I posted on it talk through it a lot. The ability to do whatever power transmission you want for the first stage is very nice.

The fact that both stages move up together puts the carriage centered in the 2nd when the 2nd is centered in the rigid frame, greatly reducing the chance of a carriage popping out.

[MrRiedemanJACC]

Thanks a ton for these. This will help many teams ours included!

[notmattlythgoe]

Thanks for the videos Adam. I know a team or two that I'm going to point towards your youtube channel.

[z_beeblebrox]

Thanks for the videos!

Adam, a quick SolidWorks question:

When do define holes in a sketch versus with Hole Wizard?

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by z_beeblebrox

Thanks for the videos!

Adam, a quick SolidWorks question:

When do define holes in a sketch versus with Hole Wizard?

For the team.... I almost always do it in the sketch, as we move so quickly that it's nice having one sketch define an entire part (or system).

It helps that we really only do a few holes.

For odd sized holes we want modeled correctly, we'll make them .050" or something in the sketch, just to give a location to use with hole wizard later.

In industry and for work, there is less emphasis on speed and I don't like parts as heavily. We also do more official drawings, and having things standardized is nice. So I will use hole wizard far more there.

[cxcad]

With such a small team, how do you manage to get the students to prototype, cad, and build two robots? In particular, how do you guys manage to do such detailed cad work so fast?

[MichaelBick]

Originally Posted by cxcad

With such a small team, how do you manage to get the students to prototype, cad, and build two robots? In particular, how do you guys manage to do such detailed cad work so fast?

Little known secret: they build three robots

[Thad House]

Originally Posted by cxcad

With such a small team, how do you manage to get the students to prototype, cad, and build two robots? In particular, how do you guys manage to do such detailed cad work so fast?

I think the key is to NOT do super detailed cad work. For things like drivetrains, its already pretty known what is needed, so you can usually use much simpler constraints and just get your custom pieces designed correctly. If its missing a few parts, or some holes are not exactly the right size, that is usually ok, because those things can usually be written out manually faster then cadded.

Another thing is that if you cad everything first, building multiples of something really doesn't add too much time. It doesn't take 2 times as long to build a second part, because most of the time is spent setting up the machines anyway.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by cxcad

With such a small team, how do you manage to get the students to prototype, cad, and build two robots? In particular, how do you guys manage to do such detailed cad work so fast?

It's the expectation that every student on 973 works all the time, every day of shop. There is always something to do and a way to help.

Not every kid is a driving force on the creative side of things, but they will all make parts, help assemble, etc...

As for design, kids designing work year round to practice. That combined with the really fast style I teach allows quick work.

We don't waste time making parts 3d until we really want them. Most concepts are developed in 2d sketches, or a single 3d block part to figure out dimensions. This cuts iteration time down a LOT.

We've also spent a lot of time optimizing design for fab, and our fabrication processes. The in house router is a huge help.

[MrRiedemanJACC]

So quick question, let's say you had an elevator travelling 6 feet, but you wanted your end effector to travel only 5 inches. Would you do that with a separate motor or with something "piggybacking" off the elevator lift and "stepping down" the movement so that it actuates the 5 inches while the elevator actuates the 6 feet? Or just use a slide and another device for the last motion? Think something in the terms that you want to place totes with the elevator, and use the last motion when you place a container on top.


And yes I think this is year where there will be a lot of elevators....