(if you didn’t notice, we have a 1.21 jiggawatt flux capacitor this year…)
We used a very similar system to attach the lifts to our robot last season from necessity. It required a lot of effort and force to reset them, so we opted instead to make them quickly removable. It was probably the single best feature of our robot.
This season, we’re taking a similar approach. Because the structure above our drive train is large and covers almost everything, we’ve made it removable again. Additionally, the most exposed parts of our manipulator are similarly attached. If they become damaged, we can replace them in about 15 seconds.
We frequently stored our robot in our pit in pieces. It gave us a lot more room to work with. Be warned that if you do anything similar, 75% of the people walking through the pit – other teams included – will think your robot is broken. That was a bigger problem for us last year than we ever expected.
Looks great 222 is planning on doing the same with our mechanism…we even got pins with tethers on them so team members can’t put them in their pockets and walk away 
So does this mean that you have more than one manipulator? Sweet…
Doubt it. It costs too much weight to do two, though you can if you want to. (The second manipulator, weighed with the first one on the robot, can’t cause the robot to break the weight limit.)
umm what is a “1.21 jiggawatt flux capacitor”
It’s what makes time travel possible!
looks really neat! I just have a question…if we have an inventor file drawing and i want to put it on Chief delphi how do i do that? private message me plz.!!
your chain routing is cute
All that I have to say is, props, major props… that is really cool looking, and i am sure that it will make the electrical repair/configuration extremely easy…
Your bot looks great! Can’t wait to see it in person!!!
Thanks Fredi! The build is going pretty well, but kind of slow because we’re thinking too much and it slows down work. But we did get the new chassis driveable tonight, and should have it all working tomorrow. Hope to see you at Duel in the Desert, as a spectator–we can’t make it into a field trip so the robot will stay home again.
It is possible for you to bring your scale to Duel in the desert?
I doubt it, that’s a US Government scale, used by the troops to weigh in…so it’s way too official! sorry.
(edit: also we’ll be in my wife’s Prowler, so it wouldn’t fit anyways)
It’s looking really nice. The thinking might be slowing you down, but it has resulted in a very elegant robot with clean lines. I hope we get a chance to see it perform this year… because if that happens we’ll be seeing each other in Atlanta!
Jason
We just take a poof ball from 2 years ago, and suck out the magic smoke from it. Tends to work better.
This is a smart design feature. Our team did something fairly similar with Moonraker in 2005, using only four screws to attach the drive train to everything above it. We actually went so far as to install a trailer hitch on the upper mechanism that connected to a separate assembly which held a battery and several switches, thus letting each part be powered and controlled separately. This proved especially useful in later years, after we had thoroughly plundered the lower electrical systems but still wanted to be able to demonstrate the manipulator.
