KwarQs 2423 CAD and Code Release

[TNorris]

KwarQs 2423 CAD and Code Release

Highlighted Parts

First, a few highlighted parts that others may find useful.

Configurable Crush Block

These are the most generally useful items on this list. A configurable crush block designed for 2x1 tubing to prevent through bolts from crushing thin walls. It supports a variety of COTS tubing (including the MAXtube pattern) and each configuration is labeled with the wall thickness. The design has some nice quality of life features for 3D printing including teardrop holes and an adjustable full part tolerance.

3D Printed Bumper Mounts

A take on these bumper mounts from 1678 but designed for 3D printing. We use 1/4-20 screw mount nuts and thumb screws to attach them. The hard stops on top are new this offseason and make it easier line everything up. These were printed in solid Onyx and held up great with fully enclosed single piece bumpers. A stiff TPU or PC could also work well, but avoid filaments with poor impact resistance.

MAXSwerve Screw-on Covers

Printable covers for MAXSwerve modules that bolt on after the module is assembled. It makes it easy to remove the cover to clean/re-grease the modules without needing to disassemble them. This document also has a simplified MAXSwerve module for improved performance in assemblies

MAXSwerve 3D Printed Wheels

We developed these wheels in the 2023 offseason and have served us well. Designed for FDM printing in Bambu TPU High Flow. Our P1P can print a whole set of treads in about 12 hours. We never did any specific grip testing with these, but are eyeing the new spiky tread for next year for the sake of simplicity. STLs are available on Printables.

What we built

2024 Crescendo Robot

‘ConDUCKtor’ competed in 75 matches across Week Zero, 2 district events, DCMP, and 3 offseason events. The most successful robot our team has built, featuring an over the bumper intake, pivoting shooter/climber. We went through several intake iterations during the competition season, and a shooter redesign between DCMP and Battlecry in the spring offseason.

2024 OffSeason Robot

‘Oppor2nity’ was a practice robot designed for the 2019 Deep Space competition. It features a 2 stage elevator (heavily inspired by the Thrifty Bot Elevator kit) and borrowed from BERT 133’s simple but highly effective robot from that year. We borrowed the claw mechanism, but adapted it for modern FRC parts and 3D printed components. We learned a lot from this build and hope it will serve us well as a development platform for REEFSCAPE.

The code we wrote

For programming, we use Java and transitioned this year from a mostly custom approach to YAGSL and the command-based framework for the 2024 competition season. This marked our team’s second year using swerve drive, and YAGSL proved especially helpful, enabling us to quickly get our swerve drive operational and focus on other subsystems. We utilized PathPlanner for building autonomous modes and explored its pathfinding capabilities for automatic navigation to scoring positions during teleop. Additionally, we integrated PhotonVision for detecting AprilTags and used its object detection pipeline to automate picking up game pieces.

You cand find our competition robot code here and our offseason robot code here

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Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone in 2025!

[ElliotS]

@TNorris

Configurable Crush Block

These look awesome! How have they worked out for you? Any print recommendations/things to avoid?

[Robotgobrrrr]

The crush block is super cool and the way it’s designed for printability is amazing. You should try and see if you can get it added to MKCAD!
I did have a small suggestion though if you change your configuration setup slightly (and the instance count equation for the hole pattern) you can allow the user to make a block of any length instead of only integer lengths.
This maybe isn’t really that useful but super simple to add to make it more flexible. Here’s the version I made with that change.

Onshape

[Paytonic]

These were such a staple for us I genuinely forgot we made them! They’re really easy to use and they do their job well: prevents damage and overall just makes things feel good and sturdy. I’d say they make the assembly process more forgiving as you don’t have to worry as much about over tightening or lining up bolts. And if you need to file it or drill it out it’s much easier with the plastic than a metal block. Once you disassemble you just knock the blocks out with a piece of hex shaft or whatever and the tube is good as new. I can’t speak to the nitty gritty printing details though.

[TNorris]

For print settings, nothing special and whatever your standard material is should work (PLA, PETG). We generally increase >3 shells, but defaults with no supports should work well. You may have to dial in the tolerance to get the right fit based on your printer and tube manufacture.

We’ve used crush blocks like this for a few years, but designed these configurable ones this fall. They’ve worked well for Oppor2nity.

Thanks for the suggestion @Robotgobrrrr! I’ll update the original version later today. Edit: done!

[ElliotS]

Two things,
1, it might be good to have the mate connector for the holes to be offset from the part so they mate to the outside of the tube instead of the inside(this makes tolerances less of a worry).

2, it would be cool if there was a 1x1 version, that would probably take some messing around with in the CAD but it would be good to have.

[TNorris]

Good suggestions! Newest version has both a 1x1 version and the mate connector on the outside of the tube. Moving it to the outside of the tube also solved some weirdness with the MAXTube 1/8in variant (which has the thinner wall on the 1x side)