As one of our first posts we think it would be a good idea to give a brief synopsis of our pre-season and current competition season:
Mech Pre-Season:
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Taught CAD Sketching, Parts, and Assemblies to all members
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Recorded video tutorials and posted them for future reference on our Google Classroom
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“Finished” Organizing the Mech Room (You can’t really finish because it requires regular upkeep)
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Took inventory and requested parts needed for season
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Assembled our MK4 L2 SDS Swerve Modules, and taught our drive subsystem how to take it apart and reassemble it quickly
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Took a tour of all of our tools and power tools, going over operating procedures and safety as well as location and names.
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Had new members research subsystems from previous FRC competitions in small groups, make a presentation and a small scale lego prototype, and present
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Hosted Mech Games Season 2 to help bring everyone closer together before season kickoff.
Mech Competition Season Goals:
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Have a mechanically working drive frame (Bumpers, Bellypan, Swerve Modules) and “game-piece manipulator” subsystem designed by week 2
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Build and attach a “minimum viable product” of subsystems by week 4
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Work through issues and improve those designs with software and electrical
SWE Pre-Season:
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Introduced to new members how basic FRC code looks and works like teaching how to code a basic tank drive and a simple subsystem class.
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Showed how you couldn’t change the arguments and objects used in the class based on what subsystem it was for.
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Got into looking at swerve code and changing various values and constants based on how our swerve drivetrain was built and what worked best for us.
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Coded an intake shooter subsystem class that was used for our bot at NTX.
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Continued looking into swerve code and making sure all members understood how each method in each class worked and what they did to help perform the overall function.
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Fixed issues in the swerve code like any expired code that couldn’t be used anymore while transferring them onto the 2023 Replit.
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As for Apriltags, we have a basic setup going for both limelight and photon vision to make sure it works.
Software Competition Season:
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Finish fixing any errors and issues in the swerve code
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Start testing the code once bot is ready for testing and fix any errors during testing
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Code the subsystems that will be used on the bot and test them once they are on the bot ready to be tested (deployable)
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Limelight and Apriltags set up and code
Electrical Competition Season:
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Create a working electrical board
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Draw up a schematic that demonstrates connectivity between 8 motor controllers and a power source using 2-way Wagos
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Hopefully obtain 3 way Wagos so we don’t have to shove a bunch of wires in one wago port - - - Ensure whatever motor mech’s mechanism has built is properly connected to the rest of the wiring
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Integrate Limelight and photon vision for future games Ensure drivers have proper training time (first on west coast, then swerve)
BAM (Business and Marketing) Pre-Season:
- We submitted a multitude of grant applications over the course of our pre-season, getting our members familiar with professional formatting and writing to get them ready for the Impact Award’s essay and executive summaries. Our team was awarded around $4,000 from various grants (so very helpful to our team, so we recommend you divert a decent effort to them as well!)
- Worked on creating a professionally formatted sponsorship packet to be sent off to any potential via email, or directly handed to them in person during a presentation.
- Stay Day (3d dinos, drawstrings, phone socket thingies)
- We really believe in making sure our team members are familiar with each other in a way that reinforces a strong chemistry during our competition season. So, during our pre-season we hosted a team bonding event at Pinstack. Through bowling, laser tag, and arcade games each of our members got a clearer image of what their fellow members were like.
BAM (Business and Marketing) Competition Season:
- Designing a new T-shirt and logo that better fit the image of our team.
- Building connections within the community and raising funds through grant applications and sponsorship outreach.
- Participating in community outreach; local volunteering, promoting robotics inside and outside our school, etc…
- Working on and submitting the 2023 FRC Impact Award alongside other awards like the Woodie Flowers Award.
- Establishing a social media presence by consistently posting across various social media platforms; Tik tok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.