What to do in the off-season

Currently we're trying to get our workspace back from the massive explosion of tools and parts that it now is. I'm currently working on changing the wheel mounts so the chains don't pop off the sprocket every ten minutes.

Over the summer we plan to build ourselves a new, better crate that can unfold into a workspace like some of the other teams did. Is it true that 2826 Wave's crate unfolded into that awesome metal scaffolding around their workspace? (10,000 Lakes) I've got to get me one of those.
Anyone have any ideas for a good crate-that-unfolds-into-a-workspace?

We're also trying to get more sponsors, and get the kicker to shoot the ball more that ten feet, and preferably not straight on the ground, any ideas there?


Thaine

[joeweber]

Originally Posted by ThaineP

We're also trying to get more sponsors, and get the kicker to shoot the ball more that ten feet, and preferably not straight on the ground, any ideas there?


Thaine

We have been trying diferent kicker designs and now that the season is over we finally came up with a good one http://www.team1322.org/ideas.htm#Kicker . We are using two 1 ½ pneumatics to push two springs to latch the kicker. Than we are stretching the springs with the pneumatics, once they are stretched we can use a small pneumatic to release the kicker that kicks 35 ft. We also found that when latched and in the stretch position we cam very the distance using a VEX motor connected to a variable pressure regulator.

Thanks.

Even though that's basically what we had for a kicker (huge super-piston pulls back giant spring, use a smaller piston to release a door latch to let the kicker swing) I think we might try that. I also heard of simple ideas like sticking a hammer on a servo and apparently that works.

Anyone have any recommendations for CAD software that is free/cheap and you can get a library of FIRST parts for it? (Not demo versions, please) I need to work on my CAD skills in the off-season, and Google Sketchup is just a tiny bit awkward for making robots with, and I haven't found any FIRST parts so far.

We also have no major (non-local) sponsors, how do you people generally scout for sponsors? That also explains our lack of money, and, coincidentally, plethora of mechanical problems, lack of members, and low seed (see mechanical problems).

When's the best time/way to recruit members? WE have four active members currently, and no captain, aside from I'm acting captain until we pick a captain or something.



Thaine

[Adam.garcia]

Originally Posted by ThaineP

Anyone have any recommendations for CAD software that is free/cheap and you can get a library of FIRST parts for it? (Not demo versions, please) I need to work on my CAD skills in the off-season, and Google Sketchup is just a tiny bit awkward for making robots with, and I haven't found any FIRST parts so far.

There are a few different free CAD programs at no cost for you.
The ones I use are Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks.

You can obtain a free student Autodesk License by signing up at www.students.autodesk.com. After making an account, you can download all the programs for free (If you are a student of course).

You can also obtain a free solidworks license by contacting your local reseller and explain to them that you are from FIRST. They have a special version of solidworks called Solidworks Student Design kit.

Personally, I prefer Solidworks over Inventor. It is much easier to use and much more intuitive.

Originally Posted by Adam.garcia

There are a few different free CAD programs at no cost for you.
The ones I use are Autodesk Inventor and Solidworks.

You can obtain a free student Autodesk License by signing up at www.students.autodesk.com. After making an account, you can download all the programs for free (If you are a student of course).

Thanks a lot, When I went to their website, I thought the "student license" was a six-week trial version for the build season.

I'll have to look that up.


Thaine

[MagiChau]

Originally Posted by ThaineP

Thanks a lot, When I went to their website, I thought the "student license" was a six-week trial version for the build season.

I'll have to look that up.


Thaine

I signed up as a student at Autodesk. It appears you have to be at least 14 and know your school email address for a verification that you are indeed a student. I think you need to renew your license like every 13 months? Of course license ends when you don't go to any school.

[ebarker]

The Autodesk software packages have 13 MONTH licenses. You can easily go all the way through high school plus one month and never ever run out of CAD software.

It is the real deal. Full featured, all day long !!

[pSYeNCe]

Our team doesn't participate in any specific events during the off-season, but if yours is the same you can still learn things involving robotics. I'm working on the team website over summer, for example, but you could also get the CAD student software or LabVIEW installed on a home computer to mess around with.

[plnyyanks]

catch up on the sleep we missed during the rest of the year and purge the mountain dew from our bloodstreams

[pSYeNCe]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

catch up on the sleep we missed during the rest of the year and purge the mountain dew from our bloodstreams

Hahaha.... I actually laughed pretty hard at that
...because it's true! I had a headache for a full week due to massive absorption of Mountain Dew at the Cleveland Regional. But it was definitely worth it

[FlyingD662]

Some of the other team leaders and I on 662 have been talking alot about the off-season lately and the main things we've come up with are:
1. LOTS of demos at our local middle schools and even elementary schools
2. Hosting an "Engineering Fun Day" for middle and elementary schoolers
and 3. Getting involved in charity... even if it has nothing to do with robotics or engineering (I'm tossing around the idea of a Knit-a-thon haha)

[Bob Steele]

Wait a minute...There actually is an "off-season" ?

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

Wait a minute...There actually is an "off-season" ?

For some teams that never had the support to do anything all year 'round, yes.

We're just now finally getting to our first "off-season", and it's starting off with a bang. We've got a rib cook-off to demonstrate at for the next three days, starting this afternoon, we are planning a movie night at a local church and a bowling night at a local alley for fundraising, ordering HexBugs to sell at various events locally, scouting out a viable off-season event or two that we can attend, and training our new members (from our constant recruiting) in the ways of safety, tool usage, programming, and more.

Fundraising, training, maybe design a bunch of different chassis, or try out some new code. Work on a nice pit display for next year, maybe make a cool cart that can hold your tools, go volunteer in the community (Adopt-A-Highway, read at the library, visit your local VA hospital, etc), the possibilities are truly endless.

Basically, take what you can't do or haven't done during the FIRST season, and apply it to off-season. Then add in some things you do anyway during the FIRST season (ex., competitions, except these are on a smaller scale than a regional), and you've got yourself a year-round group, who will be prepared for the next "season" of FIRST.

[kinghashbrown]

building things in the off season is always a fun way to spend time. It also gives good opportunity to learn more about designing and build robot mechanisms.

This year my team has build a new kicker. Even though it hasn't actually been used in a competition yet I learned quite a lot designing and then building it.

Over the summer I want to push to return some of the old robots we have to working order. Since we have quite a few up on the top shelf not quite in working order.

During the fall my team is going to make a test bed to prototype on next build season. This also is something kids on my team shall learn from. We plan on getting all the members involved in the planning of it so that we can catch new members and teach them a bit about robots. Nothing teaches better then doing.

We do car washes and pasta dinners during the summer and fall to raise money to offset trip costs for students.

my team goes to a couple off season events during the spring and bash at the beach in the fall. We do demos for our main sponsors and for the towns our team is from. we even take the robot in parades!

We have a picnic to celebrate the end of the school year and to say goodbye to our senior friends.

[dancingfool]

Some team's are all year round, it depends on what you feel best suits your team.
We turned to a year round structure last summer and it helped us so much this year.It allowed us to get things that weren't robot related out of teh way so that when build did come, we didn't have as much on our plate as we had in the past.
We use our 'off-season' to recruit new sponsors, as well as give final updates to our current sponsors about how the season went, what we did, etc... We also use the summer to revise our team documents (such as our business plan and By-laws), and hold/participate in more community outreach events, and demo's for schools (this usually happens right after nationals). This year we are going to be doing some maintenance of our server and work on re-designing our website a little bit. We are hoping to also at least start working on our awards submissions for the following year.

As mentioned previously, the 'off-season' is a great time to teach. We use off-season events to show interested students what a competiton atmosphere is like, and the prep for those competitions as mini-build seasons/training sessions. It's also a great time to let returning members do a little mentoring.
Now, this past year was my senior year and I'm not a mechanically inclined person so i handled most of the business aspects of the team (talking to judges, awards submissions, etc...) but the off season allowed me to find students that were interested in the business stuff I worked on and train them so they know exactly what needs to get done next year and how to do it. I found it a lot easier to do after build then during, just because it wasn't as hectic; not that it's impossible during build, because some of the learning has to be done that way, but we all know tensions can get high. lol