To my knowledge, this is all inclusive of tax, tariffs, and duties. Here is the exact response I got from our vendor when I asked the same questions.
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Out of curiosity, are you looking for those truss plates too that they velcro to the floor?
We are going to have a sponsor cut them (or FabWorks if the sponsor says no). From what I can tell, the ones from the field FIRST has custom made, but I could be wrong on that.
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We were 3d printing 20T HTD pulleys but couldn’t find any COTS pulleys of that size? what COTS pulley did y’all get? I can only find one size up or down plus it changes belt size.
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The pulleys on the rollers stayed 3d printed the pulleys on the gearbox where the ones we changed to metal.
Let me know how this goes my team is slowly building a full field and are looking at getting trusses for field elements before we commit to an actual perimeter made of non-wood.
Another question – did you happen to figure out who the official vendor FIRST uses for trusses is through your search process? Any idea how close these are to the official versions?
We’re seriously considering our own order later this year. Thanks for blazing the trail!
This thread has most of that information. As far as I know these are built to the same spec as the official ones, but I’ll be able to know more in a month of so when it arrives.
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I got our first presentation from the FIRST Mentor Conference uploaded to YouTube.
Maximize the 1st week of build season: FIRST Mentor Conference 2024
“Join us to gain actionable insights and ensure your team hits the ground running from day one! Kickstart your team’s success by maximizing the first week of build season. This talk covers essential strategies for FRC mentors, including effective rule reading, building accurate field elements, identifying optimal robot archetypes, and rapid prototyping techniques. Learn how to organize, prioritize, and execute these crucial tasks to set a strong foundation for your team’s build season.”
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0oyG6LqFpY
Slides:
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The “Top Tips from Top Teams” panel that I was a part of at the FIRST Mentor Conference is now uploaded to YouTube.
“A discussion on effective strategies for developing and managing high-performing FRC teams.”
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I noticed that there is 1/8" lexan sandwiched between the Kraken and the 0.236" pivot gearbox lexan plate. Why the added thin Lexan? We made our own lexan gearbox but some of the holes cracked. I’m not 100% certain the cause. Maybe some loctite got on it. Maybe because we used a 1.23" hole for the Kraken shaft instead of what y’all used (0.75").
It’s a spacer so the motor doesn’t run into the bearing that is thicker than the main polycarb plate. (I believe, I’m answering this without pulling up our CAD)
Yup. Now I see it. Thanks!
FIRST is using Total Structures (https://www.totalstructures.com/).
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Our last video from the FIRST Mentor Conference is uploaded.
“How Open Build Blog makes us better”
“Join us for a presentation where we explore how maintaining a build blog doesn’t just help other teams but makes us better. By posting our progress, sharing our successes, and explaining our failures, we create a valuable resource that enhances our team’s capabilities and fosters a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. Understand the personal and team benefits of a build blog, learn practical steps to start and maintain it, improve team collaboration and project management, highlight our achievements, attract support, and create engaging content.”
Slides: How Build Blog makes us better - Google Slides
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Thanks for sharing.
PS: Several of the images in that deck are great. I genuinely laughed at “Copy my homework but don’t make it obvious” The point about Citrus building your bot at 13m30s is a great one as well.
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The Remix Event Recap - 3847
This past weekend, Spectrum 3847 competed at Remix with our in-season robot, Ultraviolet. We had a record of 5-7-0 and ranked 12th overall. We were picked by the third alliance captain, 2714 (BBQ), and were joined by 8370 (Glow with the Flow) and 7691 (TSA All Stars). Our alliance was eliminated in our second playoff match. Special thanks to 1477 Texas Torque for hosting an amazing event, and to our alliance partners 2714, 8370, and 7691 for being great to work with.
Pre-event
The only change we made was replacing a broken battery box cover.
Failures and Fixes
Failure: Intake was slipping.
Fix: After inspection, we found that the belts were worn, so we replaced them and the intake worked afterwards.
Failure: The top of our amp-trap mechanism completely broke off after a strong impact.
Fix: We quickly replaced it with our spare plates (shoutout to our amazing pit crew who pulled it off!)
Failure: The motor mount plate for the left side elevator chain broke (we were somehow still able to climb and trap with it broken that last match).
Fix: Since we found it after our last match, we didn’t replace it.
Controls
Autonomous: We mostly ran our Madtown, Rush 12, and 6.5 autons. The Rush 12 was the most consistent out of the 3 during this event.
Other stuff: Code changes made a few days before the event did not sync to all the laptops and had to be rewritten. Faulty code resulted in the robot occasionally ejecting the note before trapping but the issue was only discovered and fixed mid-event.
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The Remix Event Recap - 8515
This past weekend Photon 8515 competed at the Remix 2024 event, having a record of 9-9-1 as the 19th ranked team, and ended up being the 2nd pick on the 7th Alliance, along with partners 6017 (PrepaTec - Cyberius), 2881 (Lady Cans), and 6647 (PrepaTec - Voltec). Despite losing its first match, Photon and its alliance partners ended up battling its way up through the lower bracket, winning every subsequent match, until they got into Finals, where after a hard fought 3 game series, they lost. Special thanks to team 1477, Texas Torque, for sponsoring and hosting such a fun event, to 6017, 2881, and 6647 for being super fun to work with.
Pre-event
Similar robot to what we ran at RRRR. New hooks were added however, and the climbing and trapping mechanisms were able to work properly. We only trapped once on 8515.
Failures and Fixes
Failure: During playoffs, the launcher plate cracked and parts of the polycarb fell off, leaving the launcher crooked.
Fix: The entire Photon launcher was swapped off for the Spectrum one.
Failure: After the swap of the launcher, the following match saw Photon unable to shoot.
Fix: The issue ended up being the motor not being licensed for the Photon bot which was easily fixable.
Failure: One of the swerve module extrusion attachment bolts backed out and got bent.
Fix: we just removed the bolt and tightened the rest of the bolts.
Failure: Our intake wedge bolts backed out. We think this is because only 2 were in, and the holes were stripped.
Fix: We used longer bolts and reattached the intake wedge.
Failure: Our pivot popped off on one side during hard impacts. This was only a problem on the practice bot due to the geometry.
Fix: We managed to fit an old aluminum gear teeth spacer on both sides of the polycarb to stop the issue from happening. This didn’t happen for the rest of the event.
Failure: Similar to 3847, One of the elevator chain mounts shattered.
Fix: We just removed the chain and decided not to trap to not further damage the elevator. We were still able to amp.
Controls
Auto:
Mainly ran Madtown auto in elims and tried to run Rush 12 and 6.5, but neither saw as much success as Madtown did. Our Mad town Auton was extremely compatible with our partners. Here is our most successful auton:
MUTE THE VIDEO
Other control stuff was fine besides the occasional pivot and wheel config updates. Code changes made a few days before the event did not sync to all the laptops and had to be rewritten. Faulty code resulted in Photon occasionally ejecting the note before trapping but the issue was only discovered and fixed mid-event.
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i thought this was an allen wrench, holy
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