pic: Top Gun Going Into the Box

[Rick TYler]

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[Madison]

It's hard to believe that this is the same team that built a machine almost entirely from wood last year. It looks as if you've all been working with aluminum for ages.

You looked busy at the scrimmage so I didn't want to interrupt, but I'm curious about how your conveyor works. Is it gravity fed from the initial feed backward to the larger system of belts and pulleys?

I also see you've added a big crossmember to the front after the run in you apparently had in Bellevue

I'm looking forward to playing with you all next week in Portland. We completely abandoned shooting in favor of storing and, hopefully, scoring a great number of 1 pt. balls based on what we saw at that scrimmage. I didn't get to see your machine shoot at all -- how do you think it stacks up?

[Rick TYler]

Madison, I'm bummed I didn't see you in Bellevue! I know you didn't bring your 'bot, so I didn't look for you.

The biggest improvements for us this year were in chassis building and software. We had two great new software mentors and a student (*ahem* my son, John) who really dived into it. They wrote PID code, and code to use the camera, encoders and the gyro. They also programmed some (untested) autonomous modes. Our chassis rules, and we are proud that, although we used 9x2 Beadloks, we didn't copy the TRC chassis. It was welded by a student, too.

Our game system team got a little behind, though, which is why the shooter wasn't working in Bellevue. The shooter now works fine, and the ball lifter is good, but the little bit that ties them together still needs to be installed. It should consume the morning at Portland.

There were a few times where we wanted to use a bit of plywood for something, but didn't because we wanted to break with our natural laminate past. The only wood in the robot is the electronic boards. I wanted to paint them "Top Gun Blue" but our chassis boss was in a hurry. Look for TGB decals, banners, shirts, &c. at PNW.

The ball lifter picks balls up and drops them down a pair of rails to the foot of the "loader" mechanism. The dual-8-inch Skyway shooter is powered by that big CIM nestled in the angle of the tower. Power is transmitted by aluminum pulleys and timing belts. There are a few small #25 chains, too. With everything you see, we are underweight. We have certain problems as a team (still working that out), but last year and this year we built solid, low-CG chassis with simple, robust drivetrains. A lot our philosophy is that you can't play if it doesn't drive or if it tips over. Even if the game mechanism doesn't work, you can still contribute if you can drive the robot. I'm looking forward to seeing if we get enough testing in on Thursday to let our software gang fully implement what they've written. And I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing this year's X-Bot. You're following a strategy I pitched to the team, but they wanted to shoot.

[jax1488]

is that a six wheel drive train?

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by jax1488

is that a six wheel drive train? and how do the balls stay put? and how many can u hold

Six-wheel drive, the balls sit on rails and are held in by 1/16" Lexan, and we can hold about 10 balls. We left the hopper off to save weight.