Working on Practicing

We still have yet to finish the carriage mounting on the practice bot. No bot means no driver practice and programming troubleshooting, so currently that is our first priority. Our second priority is our new battery cart, which is still in the making. Our final deadline for that is next Wednesday, as we head to Madera the following day Thursday for the Central Valley regional. We are hopefully going to have that done by Monday. The Chairman's team is practicing their presentation and working on the video outline. We have many interviews recorded; all we need now is an organized structure of the video.

(End Build...Begin Competition) Season

We've booked Sierra Vista all week for drive practice and carriage testing with the practice bot. Competition organization as begun: beads being ordered, team spirit gear, and more. We submitted our Chairman's essay yesterday. Our Chairman's video is under way, doing pretty well and full of student and alumni interviews. We've also been working on the battery cart, as that is a major priority for competition.
We also made a compressor backpack for quickly filling up our pneumatic tanks with air. This is just for practice, not for actual use during competition as that violates FRC competition rules.

Day 46: Heimdall NOOOOOO!

We had a great time at the potluck this evening. Heimdall was working decently for some time utnil the carriage slipped and slanted as it dropped a stack of four totes. The carriage is loose and we are officially 0.8 lbs over. We took off a tiny component and bagged and tagged Heimdall. The carriage is still with us as we are going to do further testing with it on the practice bot.

Heimdall with Team 5496 RoboKnights' robot at Sierra Vista during drive practice.

Day 45: Heimdall's Finally in the Trailer

We about finished Heimdall today. We were taking more time than expected to work on the wedges for the carriage and we needed time at Sierra Vista to practice with Heimdall (since we have only practiced driving with the practice bot, not Heimdall), so we stuck with tabs and took Heimdall over to Sierra Vista. We got the camera connected and functioning.

Day 44: Savage

Today we worked all day as well. We focused on wiring up the electrical board to the motors and other on-bot electrical components at first. We then shifted our focus to testing the motors and the Solenoid to make sure the electricl components were functioning correctly. We added LEDs to the top of the robot. Many programming modifications were made. The drive team did more practice with the practice bot at Sierra Vista.

Day 43: Ri3D: Day 2 of Heimdall

Today we camped out in the electrical room, mechanical room, and the woodshop. We worked all day today, a 12-hour shift. We riveted the electrical board to Heimdall and continued drilling holes in the frame for the constant force springs and more. Some of us went to the 692 Fembots' scrimmage to scout robots and their way of performing on the field.

Day 42: 6 Weeks Gone... Now, Robot in 3 Days?

3 more days. We've worked on the practice bot to the point where there is nothing else doing for it other than practice and troubleshooting driving and programming. Heimdall is still in the making. We're still attaching transmissions. On the bright side, the electrical team finished the final electrical board (above).

Day 41: An Early 2nd Semester Final

Today we really went in hard on working on Heimdall's frame. Not all of the holes were drilled before we sent it to powder coating, so we had to drill in holes now (see previous post's picture). The electrical and design teams worked on the final electrical board.

Day 40: Goodbye, Proto

Our main focus today was to take apart Proto. As Heimdall is currently being welded and its frame being worked on (below), we need electrical and mechanical components of our robot design. Our practice bot is fully functional for the use of drive practice, and Proto is now completely unnecessary as we are now already putting together Heimdall. We started taking off electrical components and some parts of the frame of Proto.

Day 39: Practice

A group of us went over to Sierra Vista today to practice driving and programming. Back at Vanden the CNC was still working on Heimdall's parts and welding still took place. More to come soon!

Day 38:=0

We burnt out the pneumatics control module, so we ordered more. The electrical team continued to work on soldering the driver station control panel, specifically the co-driver panel. We discussed putting sponsor banners throughout the drafting room as we prepare for the press release day on the end of build season. At the RPM meeting this evening, we were able to drive the practice bot exceptionally well, being able to stack a container on top of two totes and drive around with it.

Day 37: Conclusion and Inception

Clamping down Heimdall for welding.

Part of the whole team went again to Sierra Vista for more practicing and troubleshooting of the practice bot. Meanwhile, back at Vanden, the electrical team worked on soldering limit switch wires for the new driver station control panel. The mechanical team continued welding the frame of Heimdall which is nearly finished. Freyja is now officially in three pieces: frame, intake, and ballistae. Some others worked on the Chairman's essay and presentation

Day 36: Bit-Breaking Botheration

A part of the team (drive team and lead programmers) went over to Sierra Vista Elementary, where our practice field is. They did some runs with the practice bot fixed numerous chinks in mechanics and programming. The group that remained at Vanden clamped the chain to the practice bot and worked on tensioning. We worked on the location of the limit switch and other wires, and worked on the idler wheel for speed, distance, and travel.

Day 35: Objectives

Discussing our big objectives to be completed over this weekend. We want to have Heimdall welded by Sunday night so we can send it to powder coating. The electrical team is going to cut out the final electrical board for Heimdall, fix the encoders, and work on the pneumatic sensor intake for the practice bot. The mechanical team will work on Heimdall's forks, X-bracing, and hay squeezer supports. The programming team will work on the disc brake, and the design team will work on wheels.

Day 34: Constant Force Springs

The title can tell you on of our main objectives today. We attached constant force springs to the practice bot, as well as the elevator. We also conducted drive team tests today, for co-driver and driver. Results are being processed currently. Heimdall's parts are still being CNCed and welded.

Day 33: 3Bots

We worked on welding parts for the final robot, and the CNC continued its work of cutting out final parts. The electrical team repositioned the limit switch out of the line of the elevator. We discussed more ideas for holding the tires in place. Practice bot is about finished.

Day 32: Switching Limits

Today the electrical team soldered limit switch wires for the practice bot and added connectors to them. We are still CNCing part for Heimdall, our final robot. We finished gutting Freyja from last year.

Day 31: Practice Bot

Our main objective today was to finish the practice bot. We officially finished the wiring of the PDP. We worked on attaching the hay squeezer.

Day 30: 2Bots

We attached the intakes to the robots. Now all we need to add is the hay squeezer. We plan to finish our practice bot by today and have Heimdall's frame and components sent to the powder coating company by next Monday. In the picture, our practice bot is on the left and our proto version of Heimdall is on the right.