26-05-2011 19:52

Jeffy

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

I am sure this exercise will serve you well in the future.

Mind telling us more about the belts that stick out the top? Are they used for drive? Was turning an issue? Did they stay on well? Where did you get them from?

27-05-2011 08:23

Alan Anderson

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

A one-year-old robot is "classic"?

27-05-2011 08:43

ebarker

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

When you are 16 a year is FOREVER !!

27-05-2011 11:50

Andrew Schreiber

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

Having poked around 45's 1992 robot this was my exact response.

27-05-2011 22:00

ratdude747

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

It is a drop center tank tread drive

the bets do not stay on the grooved rollers very well. in fact, most of the robot did not work all that well. I was not on the team that year (i did not switch teams until summer '10), but i do know that in hind sight, the particular belts were not the best choice (but they got them for free from gates).

Since as electronics lead this year, I was captain and main worker on getting serial CAN working... and this bot only used 4 jags, so it was a good one to test on.

However, the source code was lost and the progamming lead (and sole programmer at the time) didn't care for the bot, so the code was a lost cause.

Once build season began and while designs were being put into CAD and tested, I had no job... until the team lead founds out I wanted to learn labview (the old team's student programmers never really wanted me to work with them). He let me use this bot to learn the skills on (with the help of some LVmastery and FRCmastery videos). during a week or so i had it driving 4 can jaguars using buttons to select different drive layouts.

However, later int he season, the jaguars were needed off this bot for the competition bot while new jags were on order. before long, the crio awas also removed for a practice chassis. I used this time to go back to this robot's mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic systems to see what i could to to make it better.

I found that:

1. the kicker was binding up on a bolt end scraping the kicker's mount to the frame, causing a loss of power.
2. the main piston was too large of a diameter for the task and was actually damaged.
3. they were controlling 3 double solenoids off of 2 thin 24 awg wires.
4. the pneumatics plumbing and mounting was in poor condition.
5. the wiring was in shambles as well.

what I did to fix them:

1. hacksaw'd the bolt end so it clears
2. replaced piston with an identical unit; if i ever get a hold of an identical piston in a 1" bore, I will swap it.
3. wired all solenoids independently, to allow more current to the solenoids and to allow different flow rates to adjust kicking power
4. I completely re-plumbed the system and added a never installed pressure sensor.
5. the iffy wiring was redone.

The weekend before I took the picture, I was able to re-install the electronics in the bot and debug some really nice code with 2 power kicking and the nicest dashboard this robot could ever have. I really learned a lot with the bot; it now does more than drive. it kicks!

the future of the bot will be a demo bot; if i can find a 1" bore 5" stroke (or is it 4"?) piston to replace the existing piston with, that will make it more pressure efficient and kick faster (i remember testing this on my old team).

28-05-2011 10:08

Mike Soukup

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

My thoughts exactly. I opened the thread expecting to find pictures of a dusty robot from the 90s restored to its original beauty. I guess I'm just getting old.

28-05-2011 14:42

Jim Wilks

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

Why would looking at a robot require the use of safety glasses???

28-05-2011 15:33

MagiChau

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

You never know what the robot can pull off.

28-05-2011 16:09

Billfred

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

Considering the common practice of stripping out the control system (if not more) from modern robots, I'll give a tip of the hat for keeping this one rolling. It gets harder to do every year.

28-05-2011 16:16

ttldomination

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

Why would you need to point out the fact that looking a robot doesn't require safety glasses?

Our team tried to keep our 2010 robot together. We kept on saying it was for the programming team, but the memories in that robot were intense. Eventually we ran out of gussets and drop-ins and had to take the entire thing apart, but it was a valiant effort.

- Sunny G.

28-05-2011 22:47

ratdude747

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

FYI the robot is ON. look at the RSL light on the 2 bots in the pic (the one in the background is this year's). they were turned on and the one I was working on was fully pressurized.

AFAIK you ALWAYS wear the glasses when a nearby robot is turned on.

Yes, I know it is not classic by some definition, but considering how young the team is (2009 rookies), it is classic to us. heck, any bot not from the current season is considered classic around here.

It was also an organ donor before I fixed it. I say "I" because I was only person who saw any value in it. most considered it to be a "fail" and a part of team history best left hidden and secret. It got so weird that people were joking that it was my new first born...

28-05-2011 23:49

mrmummert

Re: pic: Classic Robot Restoration

Never say die when it comes to old robots. Our first robot from
2005 was gutted twice for parts...first in 2008 and then again last year.
Between last year and this years build season I managed to put it back
together (I had promised our team lead we'd put it back together after all.)
and I was the only one interested (not to mention the only one with a little
bit of time) who worked on it. I got it to run again manually (all the original
code was gone) and another team mentor put the old 2005 default code
in it so we can at least drive it. Perhaps some day we'll find the copy of its
original code and put it back in or maybe someone will write new code for it.
At least for now it drives.

Our 2010 robot was a little like the one 2783 had. We had the same problem.
We wanted it to drive, kick and hang but we barely got it to drive.
Some of us have called it "the brick" from time to time (in competition it did'nt
even drive some times) after last years season we finally got it to kick and hang.
Most on the team from last year were very disappointed in it and for this year we took the
C-Rio out for use in our 2007 robot
(since that one was so much like this years) Speaking of which...

All of our old robots still run , the only exceptions are 2007 which has to have the
old control system reinstalled (we put last years C-Rio in it so we could have a robot
like this years so we could practice and program after ship date), and 2010 which has
to have a few parts put back in that were gutted for spares for this years competition.