pic: West Coast Collaborationz and Team 254 Present

[phrozen solyd]

loading photo ...

[Tom Bottiglieri]

You are using the same robot at last year?

Could you please tell/show the differences?

..It looks amazing.

[Arefin Bari]

hmm... it looks ALMOST the same... here is a picture of team 60's robot last year which was a clone of 254. looks like everything is same but the claw.

... What I like about it is, they know they have something that works, they just perfected it more.

[BoyWithCape195]

They now have a hard pole to knock down the tetras instead of the flexible rod they had to knock off the 10 point balls

[Heretic121]

from what i see... there is one more joint to the arm... same DT from show... and the gripper is diffrent... other than that it looks the same...

great job in the improvements...

[phrozen solyd]

It's almost the same 'bot as last year's, with some changes:

-Totally redesigned drivetrain - we're using 2 fisher price's (with the andymark transmissions) and 2 atwoods to run it, and we can shift on the fly. Also, the gearboxes are almost 50% lighter than last year's.

-Yes, the arm has 3 joints, but the top joint is chained to the lower part of the arm, so that it always moves parallel to it.

-We machined gearboxes to run the arm as well, because we were having problems with the plastic gearboxes on the fisher price motors from last year.

-The arm is run by 2 atwoods, not 2 FP's and and a van door.

There are a few minor tweaks here and there, but those are the main differences.

[Karthik]

"if it ain't broke, don't fix it..."

After a typically successful 2004 season, it looks Team 254 made the decision to stick with what works. At this year's kickoff I predicted that many of the top 2004 teams would only make slight changes to their robots and modify their end effectors to pick up tetras. Team 254 is a perfect example of this phenomena.

Considering the similarities to their 2004 robot, I'm sure this version was completed pretty early in the build, allowing for more practice and tweaking. A good robot, heavily tweaked with practiced drivers usually goes very far.

Great work. Can't wait to see it in Atlanta.

[phrozen solyd]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Considering the similarities to their 2004 robot, I'm sure this version was completed pretty early in the build, allowing for more practice and tweaking. A good robot, heavily tweaked with practiced drivers usually goes very far.

Great work. Can't wait to see it in Atlanta.

Actually, funny thing is, we stayed awake for the last 48 hours of build, trying to finish the robot before the FedEx guy arrived. A week before ship, we had to completely redesign and rebuild the entire arm gearboxes.

At least we've got the practice robot to play with until Sacramento.

[Yan Wang]

Awesome looking robot. Last year, your robot was my favorite - it did everything and it did it so well.

I went to your website (as the caption suggested) and I found that the robot's weight is 129lbs. Is that with or without the battery? When we weighed our robot with the battery, it was somewhere between 132 and 133lbs.

[pakrat]

how many teams are meber of the West Coast Collaborationz?? Just you and 60, or are there more this year?

[Katy]

Very nice!

Though I am a bit scared at the idea that a game suppose to be "rookie friendly" and a game that can be played with an almost-last-year's robot are suppose to be the same thing.

[activemx]

I dont think 60 is collaborating with 254 this year. But i might be wrong.

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by activemx

I dont think 60 is collaborating with 254 this year. But i might be wrong.

I think you're right. Early in the season, 60 released a concept animation of their robot, the Revolver, which could store 4 tetras on itself. 254's robot doesnt look anything like it except for the base.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Yan Wang

I think you're right. Early in the season, 60 released a concept animation of their robot, the Revolver, which could store 4 tetras on itself. 254's robot doesnt look anything like it except for the base.

It was later posted that it was only that-a concept.

I've heard they aren't working together as well.

[Kyle]

It looks great, cant wait to see it at Nats again, kinda