Team 121: How to Add a Fan in Under a Minute....

[Tom Schindler]

A time lapse of Thursday morning at the Connecticut Regional, team 121 added a fan providing ~4 pounds of thrust.

http://www.vimeo.com/3915277

Photos taken by Joe Menassa ( www.joemenassa.com ), i merely compiled them into a time lapse

[Stephen Liggett]

That's a nice video.I've always wanted to see one of an entire robot going together.

[jgannon]

Very cool video, and a neat addition to an already excellent robot.

Out of curiosity, what were your students doing during all this?

[smurfgirl]

That's a very cool video. Thanks for sharing that with us. (:

[EricH]

Originally Posted by jgannon

Out of curiosity, what were your students doing during all this?

Joey, try running the video and pausing occasionally. Those do look to mostly be students. Or do you mean the students that weren't actively working on the robot?

[Lowfategg]

So, was it worth adding it?

[TD78]

Originally Posted by jgannon

Out of curiosity, what were your students doing during all this?

There were mentors and students working side-by-side. The pit got crowded really really fast, so there were only about 5 or 6 of us working at most. We laid out a plan ahead of time though and organized the group into pairs so we could attack each area as quickly as possible. The rest of the team were either working with the scouting/strategy team in the stands or with the drive team wandering around in the pits.

Our driver said it was worth adding...and you could see the added "boost" the machine got when the fan was turned on driving across the field.. We never used the empty cell holder anyways, so any extra thrust out of the fan was more than we had in the beginning!

[AndyB]

Originally Posted by EricH

Joey, try running the video and pausing occasionally. Those do look to mostly be students. Or do you mean the students that weren't actively working on the robot?

Eric, I interpreted his post this way as well the first time. I think he's actually wondering what the process consisted of and what we are actually watching. That, or what the rest of the team was doing. But who knows, maybe he is assuming that these are mentors.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by AndyB

Eric, I interpreted his post this way as well the first time. I think he's actually wondering what the process consisted of and what we are actually watching. That, or what the rest of the team was doing. But who knows, maybe he is assuming that these are mentors.

Which is why I asked if he simply meant the rest of the students. It's hard to tell from the wording, as there are 3 different ways to interpret this:
--Why are all the workers mentors?
--What are the students who aren't working on the robot doing at this time?
--What are the workers doing, exactly?

I obviously interpreted it the first way, while asking if he really meant the second say. You're interpreting it the third way or the second way. Clarification may be needed...

[TD78]

Originally Posted by EricH

I obviously interpreted it the first way, while asking if he really meant the second say. You're interpreting it the third way or the second way. Clarification may be needed...

See post #7.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by RollinTDollin

See post #7.

I meant as to the original meaning of the post.

[JaneYoung]

That's a neat compilation of photos. Way cool.

I bet the work generated a lot of interest from other teams and folks as you guys made the changes.

[TD78]

Originally Posted by AndyB

I think he's actually wondering what the process consisted of and what we are actually watching.

There were several items we just took right off: the empty cell holder, it's associated motor, several large, unnecessary pieces of lexan, and the no longer used camera bracket. We also weight reduced several sprockets beforehand as replacements, replaced the steel shaft collars with aluminum ones, and replaced 2 out of the 3 AndyMark transmission square spacer with individual spacers. We estimated that we were taking off ~7 pounds and then adding on ~6.5 pounds with the fan and associated electronics (extra victor, wiring, etc). But when we went to weigh in officially, instead of the being ~120 pounds, we came in around 116. The scales are supposed to be calibrated, but I heard from other teams that they were also suspiciously a little low. We'll see when we get to Atlanta I guess!!

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

That's a neat compilation of photos. Way cool.

I bet the work generated a lot of interest from other teams and folks as you guys made the changes.

You have no idea how many teams came by to ask us about the fan and how it works. It was fun though, I enjoyed getting to talk to lots of teams about our robot. This ended up being one of the busiest Thursdays I've had in a long time, but it was kinda fun to be able to do something in the pits and stay busy. It made Thursday go a whole lot quicker, that's for sure!

[JackG]

That video is very cool. It's also interesting to see some of the other teams erecting their pit displays in the background.

Oh, and using Aerosmith songs always earns points from me.