Materials for a robotics class of 30

[l0jec]

Not to derail this thread, but I feel the need for some disclosure which I am not seeing.

While I personally think Vex is a great product and that IFI is a great company, if you happen to work for them... please disclose that in posts advocating someone to spend money on that program over others here on Chief Delphi. The way some of the responses are worded from those with financial ties to Vex, I don't see how the OP (or anyone new to Chief Delphi) would be able to identify them from the non-biased posts.
This is simple courtesy and keeps the information here trustworthy.

See the simple disclaimer in EricVanWyk’s post in this thread as an example.

[Bob Steele]

For what it's worth I don't work for anyone other than my school system and receive no monetary or other compensation from VEX-LEGO-PITSCO etc..

That being said... if they would like to give me stuff and money (expecially money..) I would be happy to accept that... and then to change this post...

[l0jec]

Originally Posted by Bob Steele

For what it's worth I don't work for anyone other than my school system and receive no monetary or other compensation from VEX-LEGO-PITSCO etc..

Wasn't directed at you, Bob.

[Paul Copioli]

Not to derail this thread, but I feel the need for some disclosure which I am not seeing.

While I personally think Vex is a great product and that IFI is a great company, if you happen to work for them... please disclose that in posts advocating someone to spend money on that program over others here on Chief Delphi. The way some of the responses are worded from those with financial ties to Vex, I don't see how the OP (or anyone new to Chief Delphi) would be able to identify them from the non-biased posts.
This is simple courtesy and keeps the information here trustworthy.

... says they guy with no discernible name or identity in his post.

Just so we are clear, I am not only the president of VEX Robotics, I am also a client ...

And by the way, if it was directed at Rick Tyler then you are way off. He does not work for IFI or VEX Robotics or any other company that profits from the sale of VEX Robotics.


Paul

[sanddrag]

Thank you to everyone who has given input so far. This has given me some good ideas of where to go from here. I agree that Vex seems to be an easy to teach and easy to learn, and highly engaging system. I like what's included, but I also like the more advanced parts, which of course cost more. I have been informed that I may not receive any materials at all for this school year, but I'll still be putting a budget together. We'll see how it turns out.

If anyone else still had ideas of useful kits/lessons, etc, please do feel free to share.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by l0jec

Not to derail this thread, but I feel the need for some disclosure which I am not seeing.

While I personally think Vex is a great product and that IFI is a great company, if you happen to work for them... please disclose that in posts advocating someone to spend money on that program over others here on Chief Delphi. The way some of the responses are worded from those with financial ties to Vex, I don't see how the OP (or anyone new to Chief Delphi) would be able to identify them from the non-biased posts.
This is simple courtesy and keeps the information here trustworthy.

If this was directed at me, I can explain my position. I work for RECR, and on the VRC, but even if I were an employee of IFI, that wouldn't matter. I work with the VEX competition world and support the VEX product line because I choose to, and not because they pay me. If he had asked me this question last year I would have answered the same way. Ironically, Sanddrag and I were both very active in 2005-2006 on this forum, and I would be surprised if I have to tell him my credentials to be believed. I'm not a legend on this forum, but I believe I have a long, credible history here, with two years of FRC, four years in FTC, and three years in VRC. I've been working with VEX ever since FIRST adopted it, and now run a 70+ student VRC program in our own club. The product is a great general-purpose tool for teaching engineering/robotics basics in the classroom and after school, and, given what Sanddrag told us initially, I'm comfortable with the advice I gave.

My first response to Sanddrag was to ask him what his educational goals were. In the absence of goals, it is hard to make plans, but with the limited information Sanddrag gave us, I believe my answer was credible. I have immense respect for those who responded in this thread (especially for well-know contributors who use their real names), and think there are a lot of good ideas here.

[sanddrag]

First, let me just say I really appreciate all the help so far. It's great to see so many of you offering your advice and sharing your ideas. It means a lot to me.

Many of you have asked what my educational goals are, and I know I haven't fully explained them. Here's why. I'll be honest, I haven't had a spare moment to fully define them yet. I have a lot I'd like to accomplish, but I have not yet laid out the specifics on paper. Teaching a full class during the school day is something brand new to me. It's very exciting, and I am enjoying it. However, I quite literally switched jobs overnight and jumped right into teaching about one month ago. It has taken me time to get set up with everything, and prepare lessons for each day. It takes nearly every waking moment of every day (I teach three periods of Technical Literacy in addition to the two periods of Robotics). It has been going well so far, and I'd like to keep the momentum throughout the year with projects of increasing complexity, while maintaining a fun and competitive aspect.

I like the goals that Don has mentioned. I have been thinking along similar lines.

One of my primary goals right now is keeping the costs of class materials as low as possible. While I would like to run a full-blown program such as Vex at some point down the line, I do not have oodles of funding available in the immediate future (this semester, possibly even this entire school year). Electronic circuits have been a good way for me to teach some valuable topics rather inexpensively, since I already have 15 breadboards, and components are cheap. Another one of my goals is for every student to be highly engaged in hands-on projects. I would like to do this with individual projects and small group sizes. So, it goes back to the need for it to be inexpensive. I'd like to see pairs of students work on projects. Groups of 4 and larger start to lose individual benefit and learning in some students. Finally, I'd like to see structured activities that the class does as a whole. Right now I have a few of one sort of robotics kit, and a few of another sort, and it's too much work for me to prepare and oversee simultaneous activities and to have students going separate ways.

So far, my class has been working on two primary projects. Electronic circuits using discrete components, and an "Invention Challenge" to design a device to lift a ping-pong ball from the floor, to a ceiling that is 2 meters above the floor, in the shortest time possible.

Soon though, we need to move into actual robots, and I think the Tamiya Dual-motor gearbox is a good first step, due to its low cost, and being just about perfect for a small robot. We can start with the design and mechanical aspect, then move into teleoperated control, and then discrete components on a breadboard, and then possibly microcontrollers much later on.

I have access to a VersaLaser machine. I believe it can cut thin materials? I have not verified its operation, but I believe it to be functional. I've used a Universal Laser machine before. I think the laser cutter will be quite useful in cutting robot frames, control panels, and parts from inexpensive materials. Students can design the parts themselves using something like Inkscape (again, free) perhaps.

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

...One of my primary goals right now is keeping the costs of class materials as low as possible. ...

Been there, done that! Believe me, I know where you are coming from.

To breadboard our mini-sumos, I cut breadboards in half on the bandsaw... it got them down under 10cm long (to meet mini-sumo size requirements) and it is cheaper to buy one standard breadboard than two little ones!

I've posted some more ideas over the past couple years to my blog... here's a couple links:

Programming PIC Assembly Language Code using PICBots

This uses MPASM, Microchip's free assembler, and MPLAB... familiar to us all from pre-NI controller days... and a neat little shareware program that I can only assume is now freeware since the authors are no longer to be found.

There are about 40 pages of handouts that I've attached as pdfs to the bottom of the post that take you all the way through to using BASIC to read the Sony IR protocol. Feel free to use any or all of them, or just take the ideas you like.

And a link to a cool "gears simulator"

Using Lego to teach iso/ortho drawing.

I really like doing PIC based projects... not just for robotics, but the 16f627a and 16f628a are just classic, cheap controllers that are good for a tonne of things (even if they aren't quite as "tough" as their 16f84 predecessors). Right now I'm looking at upgrading my projects to the 16f88, or something with an A/D convertor, and bootloader compatibility. I hope to have had some experience with that prior to January (and to have a fair bit written about it) as I will be teaching PIC programming and Mini-sumo construction to my classes at BCIT in the new year.

Other cool things to do with the PIC... steal a stepper motor from an old floppy drive and use an L293d chip to drive it... see if the students can make it spin. Hook them up to some cheap LCD displays, or just use an old serial mouse cable to hook them up to a PC using Hyperterminal.

Have fun... but watch out... we started down this path a decade ago at David Thompson Secondary... and ended up entering FRC, FLL, FTC and VRC as a result. (Eventually, I even got a new job out of it all!) It is amazing how things happen when you have happy, motivated students who are learning important concepts... kits might make it easier, but they don't make it better!

Jason

[mplanchard]

we posted LEGO based curriculum at www.SolidWorks.com/robotics

The LEGO tutorials contain .pdf documents and video files for download.

Marie