how far have you gotten on your robot?

[Dillon Compton]

We have our 'bot fully designed. We'll be using kitbot chassis, and should have a ball launcher and chassis built by the end of the weekend. All the rest of our fabrication is on hold pending receipt of parts from various suppliers. I estimate two weeks from Sat. untill completion, giving us two weeks of drive time.

We may order additional parts and create a practice bot after ship date.0

Programming...progresses. I should have a functional auton. by monday, and a stellar one by ship.

[ewankoff]

yeah the prototype above uses most of last years transmissions parts and also there are gonna be alot more improvements but this was just proof of concept. the final version is gonna be with more rpms and with a belt drive to conserve space.

[Uberbots]

A little update as to how far we have gotten...
we have integrated physics caluculations into the code, so that the shooter can actually track the goal.
and it scores 9/10 of the shots.

oh boy a great victory for the programming team tongight! we have autonomous shooting!

[Leo 1529]

we have only got the electronics started and the field built

[Kim Masi]

Originally Posted by Eric Scheuing

That was EO's, right? What happened with that?

umm...there was not enough pressure on the ball, so it only went about 2 feet...literally.

[Dulaney1727]

I was wondering my Rookie Team was far behind. My teacher insists that we are right on schedule but it is hard to tell, knowing that there is so much to do and so little time left.

We have experimented on the devices to try and discover a system that would effectively shoot the 7.5 inch ball. We discovered that pneamatics would not be powerful enough and using springs was good idea but also did not work out so well in the end. We also tried using a pinball machine design, where a "hammer" would hit behind the ball and launch it forwards, but it again turned out not to be powerful enough. We are now trying to build a system with wheels and a motor to shoot the ball out similar to softball machine at batting cages.

For the electrical stuff, we have laid out the most of the electronics and created the circuits and have screwed everything down to the plywood.

We have built the chasis for the robot and started to play around with the camera, but are running into some technical difficulty.

We have yet to look into a hopper system and a system for picking up loose balls.

Thanks
Scott

[Chuck Glick]

Originally Posted by gondorf

good point.

unfortunutely we arent able to get mor alum so we are stuck using kitbot.

we are still working on trying to make the motors work and i just found out that wheels cant be chemically treater for traction.

my school has problems with their robot

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

we had that problem with our gearboxes too...i figured out that the lock washer you put on the shaft to hold on the pinion was binding with the other gears...so we removed the lockwasher and just used the newer set screws that were included in the parts bag... try that and they shouldnt smoke.

[scitobor 617]

So far I've been programming like a mad man to get the camera up and running. I've gotten it to drive one of our old bots toward the goal and stop at a certain distance from it. Our ball shooter prototyping is done now and we'll begin working on the real one soon. I'm not too sure how progress is coming on our chassis but its atleast a day behind schedule I'll be starting to work on an inertial navigation system today

[ICE MAN]

my team has so far completed a entire mock up and working model of a old baseball pitching machine. so far we have been able to easily through the balls at 30-35 feet. we also have our camera pretty much worked and programmed out. so we are on a good course. now if we could only get the real robot to preform just as well we might actually win something. i will hope to post pics. of our mock up for the benefit of others. until have a great time building. and remember to "aim low"!!!!!!!!!!

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by SirCharles982

we had that problem with our gearboxes too...i figured out that the lock washer you put on the shaft to hold on the pinion was binding with the other gears...so we removed the lockwasher and just used the newer set screws that were included in the parts bag... try that and they shouldnt smoke.

This happened to some of us last year, too. We tried trimming the circlip down so that it didn't rub, but ended up just taking it off. We went through the season without a problem. In fact, we just stripped the transmissions for the first time since we assembled them last January, and they were perfect inside -- no visible wear. These are nice transmissions (although our left-hand transmission still growls just like it did a year ago).

[Ellery]

Well what worked for our team last year was to have a fully functional prototype by the 2nd Saturday. At this agressive schedule we would be able to improve the final build and have time for our drivers to practice. I would suggest to any rookie team to remember the "KISS" terminology and use what's given to you as much as possible to keep you on a productive schedule.

[dude__hi]

So far everything is working well. We're a little behind so we should have a completely functioning robot by Monday night.

[Unglued]

what's wrong with the kitbot frame?

we used it last year and played heavy defence, i saw no major wear.
(pictures are located at our website )
so far we have:

-a prototype shooter working on a large cim motor, but it's not fast enough and it could only score a goal from about 12 feet away and the max distance is a bit more than 30 feet. , it needs improvement.
-we built full size feild parts, center goal corner goals and ramp.
-we're arguing on design
-our custom wheels are being made, they'll be welded and ready to go by next week since we can't weld it with out mig welser, we'll need a tig welder.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

This happened to some of us last year, too. We tried trimming the circlip down so that it didn't rub, but ended up just taking it off. We went through the season without a problem. In fact, we just stripped the transmissions for the first time since we assembled them last January, and they were perfect inside -- no visible wear. These are nice transmissions (although our left-hand transmission still growls just like it did a year ago).

I don't know if anyone did this, but if you watch the assembly video from 2005 it says that the set screws will bind, and that you need to replace them with the included replacements...

[jesusfreakmths]

So far we have a basic design. we are currently trying to get our robot to move around with out ruining anything. lol.

Has anyone had there speed controller (Victor 884) start smoking and melt?

Anyways we are a little behind, gut are amazed at what we have gotten done so far since we are just a rookie team.