Team 2470 teaser!

[ehochstein]

So since we never actually took a picture of our finished robot, I have a picture of our robot for you from week 2 or 3 I don't remember which. You can see kind of what our robot will look like, we did add a bunch more stuff, but you can wait until the competition to see that.

[Michael Corsetto]

Why have 4 toughboxes for a tank steering 4wd? Why not chain up the front and back wheels? Are you changing the wheels to mecannum?(sp?)?

[ehochstein]

Why have 4 toughboxes for a tank steering 4wd? Why not chain up the front and back wheels? Are you changing the wheels to mecannum?(sp?)?

Well it actually is 8 wheel drive, you just can't see the other 4 wheels because they are not there! We welded 8 more angle iron things on and put 4 smaller wheels in that are powered by the CIM motors so we can make it over bumps without breaking our kickers. We have 2 kickers on our robot one mounted in front and one in back, they each vary in power one for kicking it across a zone to score, and the other to kick a ball all the way across the field/into another quadrant.

This picture shows about where 2 of the smaller wheels were placed, I circled them in red.

[Michael Corsetto]

I still don't understand why you don't have both CIMs for each side go through one toughbox and then chain up all 4 wheels together. It would save you the weight of a toughbox at the cost of one more loop of chain (a good tradeoff IMO).

[Chris is me]

It's a little late for that... (Though he's right unless you're doing something freaky / interesting we can't see here)

How do you guys deal with turning scrub? How about kicking? Don't get too good, or you guys won't be around for the second round of the draft this year .

[ehochstein]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

It's a little late for that... (Though he's right unless you're doing something freaky / interesting we can't see here)

How do you guys deal with turning scrub? How about kicking? Don't get too good, or you guys won't be around for the second round of the draft this year .

Well we have a kicker in the front that uses a pivot point and surgical tubing to fire. We have tested it to go over into at least the quadrant next to us, but we have not tested it on a full sized field yet. We use a pneumatic piston to reload it into a gate latch, then we use a motor to open and close the gate latch. In case our motor breaks down, or the system breaks, we also have a much smaller pneumatics piston to open and close the latch. Our second kicker placed on the opposite side of the first kicker, kicks a ball just far enough to score it into a goal from the far side of a quadrant, it also serves as a pusher. The second kicker is just a Pneumatics Piston with a special attachment on the end. What exactly do you mean by "How do you guys deal with turning scrub?" I am not quite sure I understand what you are saying? And I think we will still be around for the second draft, unless the new rules on the qualification points somehow boost us, to me at least it seems the new rules base the game more on luck.

[Chris is me]

Turning scrub is the friction generated by wheels when you turn in place. When your wheels all have the same traction and you have a longer wheelbase than wide, it becomes very hard to turn in place and it draws a lot of battery current. If it becomes a problem for you at competition, a super quick fix is to use the kit "slippy wheels" on one side of your drive. While you're more easily pushed on that side, you'll have easier turning.

[ehochstein]

Ah, I see what you mean!! Yeah I was going to run the practice match with 4 sticky wheels, and if that didn't work out for me while driving I was going to have our mechanical team replace 2 of the sticky wheels with slippy wheels. And I don't think I will have much of a problem with being pushed this year, I got a lot of training last year on harassing the other alliance's driver's robots

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by Wiifi

Ah, I see what you mean!! Yeah I was going to run the practice match with 4 sticky wheels, and if that didn't work out for me while driving I was going to have our mechanical team replace 2 of the sticky wheels with slippy wheels. And I don't think I will have much of a problem with being pushed this year, I got a lot of training last year on harassing the other alliance's driver's robots

Be very careful carrying assumptions from Regolith to carpet.