how far have you gotten on your robot?

[robodude03]

Our team has finalized the drivetrain and several aspects of our shooter and basket. Now all that is left is to string out the details of our mechanism, which we will take care of tomorrow. I wish you all the best of luck in finishing your bots!

[atomikitten]

Originally Posted by gondorf

which brings up another question: have you had problems with your robot/prototype? i mean something like blowing up or smoking. our motors started to smoke

Motors smoke probably because you burned them out by not gearing them well. There are a lot of other possibilities as to what went wrong. We could help you figure out what went wrong if you told us more about what you were trying to do.
Since the KOP came with a kit, we figure, someone has done the work for us. We'll try it their way.
We try not to build our own designs too early so that we don't limit our potential designs. We're in a brainstorming/designing/prototyping week. I guess we'll start finalizing in two more weeks. We hold off on 7-day work weeks until later in the build season. And of course, all weeks are paperwork weeks. Don't forget to go through the manual and get all of the little tasks done in time.

[atomikitten]

Originally Posted by Reyner

We have hardly even finished the chassis of the kitbot, but that's because we took a week off for exams.

We love working through exams! Ours starts on the 17th. The majority of the team doesn't study for exams--not saying that's good or bad.

[atomikitten]

Originally Posted by gondorf

actually our robot was upside down and we were staring at it dumbfounded.

the motor was plugged in but the gear that it was attached to was stuck

and during all this i thought: dont those look like the cookies i put in the oven before school...the oven is still on...oh no!!!

aha! OK here's what went wrong. If the gear that the motor's output shaft was attached to was stuck, the motor was doing only what it knows how to do; it wants to move. It will keep forcing its way, drawing more current, trying to get its output shaft to move. If it's locked up, eventually the motor burns itself on the inside.
This is why we gear motors down. If you attach the motor directly to the wheel's axle, it doesn't have enough initial acceleration to go from zero to its max rpm, which is what it's trying to do. You know we solve this problem by putting a gear with fewer teeth on the motor, then a bigger gear on the wheel, and you get a ratio. The motor has to rotate several times before the one on the wheel makes it all the way around, but it's actually a good thing because it prevents it from locking up. The motor gets to move right away, so it's happy.
The worst thing that can happen is the motor is trying to move but can't, and then it keeps trying until it burns out. In the future, make sure the motor is free to move before you turn it on, and be ready to turn it off right away if something doesn't seem right.
A lot of other things could go wrong. You said you were using the kit, so I hope you were using the correct motor. It's the regular CIM motor, not the larger ones; part numbers FP801-005 vs FP801-001.
When motors are gone, they're gone. Spare parts are in 5.4.5 of the manual (you feel kind of crazy when you have a copy of the manual on your bed) the URL for the IFI store is http://www.ifirobotics.com/0-index.htm and I don't know how long it'll take for them to get there, so hurry.
I hope some of the things covered in this post were already familiar to you.
If you need more help, CD is the right place! Good luck!

[sanddrag]

We have made a prototype shooter (including some CNCed parts) that will send the ball 60 feet! The accuracy still needs a little working on, but it was hard to know on a windy day and outdoor testing space.

The gearbox design is almost done. CIM motors have been ordered. The wheels and frame construction has been decided. Frame design is starting. Wheels, gears, bearings, sprockets, and chain will be ordered on Wednesday.

The ball manipulation group is still working on conceptual pickup, conveyance, and feeding technique and volume allocation.

Overall, I'd say we're slightly ahead with the drivetrain and pretty much on track with the ball manipulation.

[Stuart]

well weve gotten the kit frame and gearboxes build and mounted. weve got our bin fully designed and 75% done. and our cannon . .well its in that weird period where we know what it needs to look like and hows its going to mount and how its going to work, but not drawn out. so for a weeks worth of work I would say were ahead of the game.

[Nita]

We are now done with exams (we did work through them), but we are behind our schedule. Chassis building is in progress, one prototype tested, and the camera's getting coded while someone works on a scale model of the field. There are parts to be ordered and the website team is still brainstorming ideas.

[Kim Masi]

we put together the kitbot to house some of our prototype ball shooters, but we're not using it as our base. we're using box aluminum

the prototypes continue to develop, but we're having a lot of math errors in calculations. What does everyone think the perfect ball shooter will contain?
1 wheel? 2 wheels? how hard will it be to load?

we've had 2 tested prototypes so far with barely any success. But atleast we're learning. Right now, we're working on 2 more that will hopefully produce better results.

Our camera team continues to develop as they decode and find the target. We're really lucky for all our team did last year with the camera, so this year, the improvement on the vision system is helping us tremendously.

But Pelan, i am in agreement. Not far enough. Our mentor's goal is to have the robot finished in 3 weeks from today. Idk how that will work out, but we're trying

[gondorf]

so for most people the kitbot was not used and was discarded for custom designs. do the custom designs hit the maximums?

i know that the kitbot exceeds them. we had to cut the size down for ours.

[Mike Norton]

we have the base done with two speed. we have the prototype shooter done and working very well. our 10 ball magazine done ready to go. only one thing left couple of front roller and a basket to hold them in. we figure by next Friday everything done and then getting a lot of drive and play time. this is where we find out what needs to be improved. (waiting for Fabric and pool noodles to come in to finish the bumpers)

We will have about 3 weeks of stick time. plenty of time to be ready.

[psycho7]

my team has got the kit chasis nearly running and we have the basics of our design down and are in the process of tweaking it. farther along than I had dared to hope.

[gondorf]

hmm making it in 2 parts is a good idea.

when we finish it it will probably be right before the deadline.

with ours the balls will have a conveyer belt carry them up and then a pneumatic shooter shoot them out. is this a good idea?
yay!!! this is my 50th post

[Arkorobotics]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We have made a prototype shooter (including some CNCed parts) that will send the ball 60 feet! The accuracy still needs a little working on, but it was hard to know on a windy day and outdoor testing space.

The gearbox design is almost done. CIM motors have been ordered. The wheels and frame construction has been decided. Frame design is starting. Wheels, gears, bearings, sprockets, and chain will be ordered on Wednesday.

The ball manipulation group is still working on conceptual pickup, conveyance, and feeding technique and volume allocation.

Overall, I'd say we're slightly ahead with the drivetrain and pretty much on track with the ball manipulation.

Clarkees have CNC mills?!
Lucky...

We are building a life size field and training n00bs, while the veterans and some n00bs are working on the design.

[gondorf]

i made the entire field in solidworks and our team leader made the platform out of plywood. we found that the kitbot barely makes it up the ramp without bottoming out

[Rickertsen2]

Practice field: 60%

Proof of concept prototypes. CAD drawings for lower chassis. Fabrication to begin tomorrow.

Programming: Havn't had too much time for it.

Animation: 10%