Team 3026 Orange Crush is proud to present its 2016 robot Napoleon featuring MecaTrak. MecaTrak is a dual drive train that gives us the agility of mecanum wheels but by deploying two air cylinders it drops a set of custom made tracks to give us the needed power and traction for defenses and robot to robot challenges. The tracks are made of #35 attachment chain with riveted pads attached to the chain.
Our intake utilizes a roller wheel feeder box design coupled with a two wheeled vision targeted shooter.
I am in complete amazement of what you guys have done.
For those that do not know much about Orange Crush, they are a team out of Delano, MN that has really sprung to life the last couple of years.
A big reason for this is new blood in the community. A new coach that had prior FRC experience (along with his wife and sons) moved into the district and they have helped to lead the charge for this team. The sons have helped to bolster up the talent that was already there in Delano HS. They even have alum coming back to help mentor (alum from back from when they were known as the Berzerkistani Knights).
This isn’t a large budget team - but what they do with their funds is something else. Just look at that Drive Train! Again, great job OC - can’t wait to match up with you at North Star!
We love to see others go the extra steps to make something amazing!
Are the tracks that you have on your robot deployable or are they stationary and used for conquering defenses like the rock wall. Can you drive with the tracks down and the mecanum wheels up if you want to out push another robot?
Our tracks are not deployable and are just used for conquering obstacles. We can go over the drivable obstacles just fine. We have the capability later to add pneumatics to push down the tracks, but we found we could play defence just fine with mecanums. We can strafe amd rhn circles around other bots.
We made it to semifinals in Pittsburgh so I say we did pretty well.
Looks impressive! Too bad you guys are at North Star this year instead of 10,000 lakes… would of loved to see you guys there, but regardless good luck at North Star!
Wow! What an amazing machine. I particularly love the integrated intake box/shooter mechanism you have. What is holding the ball underneath/pushing it into the shooter wheels? (That thing that flops around after the shot)
It is a piece of aluminum bent to fit around the cims. It has a flap on the back that we use to push the ball into the shooter wheels by hitting it with an air cylinder. I hope this picture can give a good visual on how the intake and shooter work.
Myself and another mentor on 2175 had stopped through your pit on Saturday to admire your creation. Doing lots of stuff we dream of, definitely inspiring, and a really beautiful machine. When you got picked by Neutrino and Storm we were fearful of the prospect, and indeed the semifinals couldn’t have been closer. I had to step out of the event for most of elims so unfortunately I missed them. But I wanted to pass along the message and congratulate you guys on a great performance at the event this weekend!!
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next
Again, I will echo my praise of 3026 and their mentors. I am so disappointed that they will not be moving on. You will not meet a better group of students (and mentors) dedicated to building an incredible machine and the team is always up for a challenge. After day 1 at the North Star Regional, my co-coach came over and stated “Holy ****, Delano has the best robot in this tournament - that machine is a beast”. I still believe she was right (no knock to the other great robots), but Orange Crush has one of the best in the state.
4607 is so proud to call 3026 partners. There are so many great teams and great stories in MN FIRST - but this team truly has a great story and will continue their rise as a powerhouse team in Minnesota. Congrats to Todd and his team!
Magnets will help you hold onto the metal floor (or defense in this case). That’s good for battlebots, where the goal is to not get pushed around. For climbing over defenses, the goal is to get over the defense, not hold onto it. Adding magnets to the treads will only make it harder to get over the defenses, not easier.
We greatly appreciate your kind generosity and how highly you look at our creation. We are striving to become a very high caliber team that builds quality robots every year, like yourselves, and we think this is a very good stepping stone to becoming one of those teams. During the off season we will be working on further improving MecaTrak and to develop the locking mecanum wheels that you saw at our pit (patent pending).
The video that you saw in our pit presentation will be linked at the bottom not only for you to show to anyone on your team who is interested, but for anyone who would like to see how MecaTrak works.
First off Orange Crush would like to congratulate not only your team for the Chairman Award, but also you for winning the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. If anyone deserves to win this award in the FIRST community it is you. Everything you have done not only in the community, but in our newly developed hub is greatly appreciated.
You and your co-coach’s reaction shows that our hard work has payed off! Congratulation to you and 4607 CIS and good luck at world!
