Hello, and welcome to our thread for the 2024 FRC season! We’ll be trying to post a proper record of our team’s progress this season, ranging from weekly updates on our progress to the code and CAD files for our robot. We hope someone in the future can benefit from this, whether it be our new members next year or new teams trying to get a handle on things.
Who We Are
Chain Reaction is a veteran team based in Plano, Texas. Our team’s main sponsor is Plano Senior High School, which means that our base of operations and members are all from this school. Since Plano Senior is a two-year school, with only 11th and 12th graders, our team has stayed somewhat small. We’ve been around since 2016 and have made it to Worlds once. Our member count is two coaches, two dedicated mentors along with whatever alumni have time to help us out, and 30 members this season. The team is organized into three subteams: Business & Marketing, Mechanical, and Softlectrical(rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it?).
As with every year, all of our senior members graduated and new juniors have taken their place. But, this year we’ve had a change in our coaches. Our four previous coaches all were unable to join us this year for their own reasons, but instead we have two new coaches! Our head coach, Mrs. Starks, and Mr. Hunt have offered their time to help us. This changeover combined with normal preseason chaos meant that we were unable to devote time to our OpenAlliance or Chief Delphi accounts. However, we’re back and here to stay this time!
Offseason Accomplishments:
Since we had many new members join this year, a large part of our offseason went to teaching them how our subteams operate along with preparation for a new season of FRC. However, we participated in the NTX Robotics Competition as well! Here’s a breakdown of what each subteam did.
BAM:
Applied for grants and sponsorships to get funding for the season. Our main sponsor, Plano ISD, covered the FRC entrance fee this year.
Raised money at Stay Day(a local fundraising event).
Started spending more time on managing our social media presence.
Created bumpers for our NTX robot, Cherrybomb.
Mech:
Trained all new members in powertool safety. The captains and mentors even made an exam with a written and practical portion all mech members had to pass.
Created the 2023 Everybot from scratch to use in the NTX competition.
Organized the workshop, again(Hopefully it sticks this time).
Software+Electrical:
Practiced electrical skills on the Everybot base built by Mech.
Started working on the swerve code that will be used during competition season.
Tried refining the controls for acceleration and braking.
With less than two months to go to our first competition, everyone’s been working hard.
Mech:
Worked on a new bumper system using clamps to make things more secure.
Completed a swerve frame with a belly pan so SWE can test out their code.
Assembled a tank drive frame and pneumatic testbed also for SWE to mess around with
Went through ideas and made mockups so members can start building the real bot.
Revised the designs for a flywheel/ramp subsystem.
Assembled a telescope for potential trap scoring.
Software+Electrical:
Tested the pneumatics system’s implementation.
Progress on coding the swerve drive is going well! It should be ready soon.
Tested CAN spark max controllers.
Set up wireless communication!
Coded and drove Tank Drive with PID - successful!
Business And Marketing (BAM):
The subteam captains decided to get Impact done earlier than the deadline so there would be enough time for revision and less pressure that might lead to sloppy work. What that meant is:
Finished all executive summary questions.
Finished the essay and shared it with the coaches and captains to look over it.
Started documenting the training of our human players(full montage on our Instagram, go check it out!).
