pic: Captain Whidbey's Proswishper's progress

[CFTeam2980]

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[Michael Corsetto]

Now we all know why the DART Linear Actuators are out of stock

In all seriousness though, congratulations on the progress! Seems like you are on a solid paces this season, best of luck!

-Mike

[CFTeam2980]

Originally Posted by Michael Corsetto

Now we all know why the DART Linear Actuators are out of stock

In all seriousness though, congratulations on the progress! Seems like you are on a solid paces this season, best of luck!

-Mike

We are considering possibly lending out a few to teams that ask... PM eedoga if you need one really desperately.

[orangemoore]

Are you guys concerned about the robot budget considering the fact over 1/4 of it has gone to the linear actuators alone?

[eedoga]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

Are you guys concerned about the robot budget considering the fact over 1/4 of it has gone to the linear actuators alone?

Most of the other stuff is from the kit of parts and aluminum...We haven't done a total up yet, and probably should soon...

[Neima]

What is the current weight? And what are you hoping to weigh after the change from 80 20?

[eedoga]

Neima:

The current weight is "?" So not entirely...and we are probably on track to be under by a bit...

So the base weighed in at 38lb without the battery slide mechanism...So with it on there it will probably be in the low 40s. The gripper mechanism in the front was 18 I believe, including the dart...

The electronics were 7, but that was before we added the polycarb cover so now maybe 8 or 9...

We didn't weigh the rails so 80/20 might have been a viable option, but the delivery time scared us...

Now the unfortunate thing is...we broke our scale. :-( We are thinking of maybe taking the robot to the vet on Monday depending on how much we get done this weekend so then we will have an official weight.

Really the goal is to add weight if we need to instead of having to loose weight because we have to.

Sorry we don't have a more definitive answer.

Edoga

[Neima]

I wish best of luck for you! Your robot looks awesome!

[asid61]

Post offices might be able to take the weight for you.
Are you worried about center of mass at all? We found that a traditional forklift style bot couldn't lift more than a few totes before it fell face-first.

[eedoga]

Originally Posted by asid61

Are you worried about center of mass at all? We found that a traditional forklift style bot couldn't lift more than a few totes before it fell face-first.

I am more worried about this than the rest of the team seems to be. They are shifting weight using the battery, and the darts are meant to tilt back loads so that the weight of larger stacks is moved back over the front wheels.

Personally I think moving three tote stacks should be reasonable even though with the current design it means building stacks on the scoring platform.

One of the designs from our design competition was a bottom loader that would have internalized stacks making it easier to build large stacks out on the field and then move the large stacks to the scoring platform once assembled.

I think the community was concerned that the bottom stacker was too specialized and didn't really have too much of a plan for inverted totes.

Another option for our team would be to use the back lift mechanism to carry around a few totes evening out the load, and then score them near the end of the match.

So...am I worried...Yes...The rest of the team? No...They are staying positive...Apparently I am a negative Nancy some times... :-p

Edoga

[lcoreyl]

Originally Posted by asid61

Post offices might be able to take the weight for you.

Also, veterinarians. They usually have their scales right near the door, and they're usually robot sized.

[eedoga]

Got the robot into the vets office after our session tonight...120 just about on the nose.

We are going to have to lose the battery moving mechanism, and one of the dart actuators for tilting the back lift mechanism. That system didn't really need to tilt in at all, and should be just fine remaining vertical.

That should net us about 8 pounds depending. Then we have to add sensors, numbers...Hopefully we will have enough wiggle room to slip in some LED light strips...We have another vet appointment next Tuesday so we can weigh the robot again then and know if we have to lose anything else.

We are also considering switching over to aluminum bolts, but that would be a bit on the extreme side...

Edoga

[asid61]

Originally Posted by eedoga

Got the robot into the vets office after our session tonight...120 just about on the nose.

We are going to have to lose the battery moving mechanism, and one of the dart actuators for tilting the back lift mechanism. That system didn't really need to tilt in at all, and should be just fine remaining vertical.

That should net us about 8 pounds depending. Then we have to add sensors, numbers...Hopefully we will have enough wiggle room to slip in some LED light strips...We have another vet appointment next Tuesday so we can weigh the robot again then and know if we have to lose anything else.

We are also considering switching over to aluminum bolts, but that would be a bit on the extreme side...

Edoga

Oh that's a shame. I would've liked to see a moving battery in action.
Well, you still have a couple weeks until stop build, so maybe you'll figure something out.
What do you still have to add? just sensors? That's only a couple pounds at most, right?

[eedoga]

Sensors, and numbers. We are also giving the robot over to our high school art club in order for them to make it pretty...So while I don't expect them to add a lot of weight, I'm sure there is some weight there. Really the battery mover needs a bit of work that would make it gain weight.

Also we came to a realization...We were planning to use the battery mover to shift weight so that the robot would be able to strafe properly. In all reality the front lift mechanism is heavy enough that the battery would have to be all the way over at the other end all the time in order to do that so having that mechanism doesn't make sense.

Finally, I personally don't want to bag for competition with the robot at 120. I personally prefer to have a bit of wiggle room going in incase there are things we missed inspection wise that require adding things to the robot, or even if it is just differences between our local vets scale and the one at competition. A few years ago we lost a bunch of time before competition because we had to cut 1 lb off of our robot...