Day 18: 2 Weeks From Today!

2 weeks from today, we aspire to finish our final competition bot!

Our mechanical committee's time was spent mostly working on the shooter and fixing its problems. We changed the shooter's gear ratios and prepped the turret for mounting. Our welding crew also spent time on welding the T-blocks for the bumper mounts.

Our design committee were gifted with another brand new HAAS, and have been working on it when they were not working on designing the root cart.

Our electrical committee worked on soldering sensors, and did so while teaching the rookie electrical committee members more stuff that need to be worked on in electrical, essentially passing off their knowledge.

Our programming committee worked on fixing errors in their code. We finished fixing the SPI interface as well as connected the Raspberry Pi to the CAN system.

We still continue testing our shooter.

Day 17: Stress Test

After we have begun welding the chassis, we realized in a stress analysis that the chassis would break, requiring our design committee to design more supports.

Our programming committee fixed inconsistencies within the code, and discussed how to write a safety in our code that stops motors from stalling. We figured out how we are going to wire all of our encoders and switchers to the talons. By the end of that day, we paired up with the mechanical committee to test the 3 stage shooter.

Our mechanical committee worked on the camera mount, the shooter ( along with testing it ), and began CNCing out plates and brackets.

Our electrical committee did the encoders for the 775 pros we will be using.

Our design committee cut out the mount for the shooter as well as the brackets to hold the gear on to the Lazy Susan (a big baring). We also added encoders to the design.

Day 16: Shooter Day

Our mechanical committee manufactured the plates for the shooter and then began to assemble the shooter, all of which are for the final bot. We started to separate out specific parts that are meant for the practice bot or final bot. We completely worked on the shooter parts all day. Our welding crew welded up most of the chassis, and also started welding some of the supports for the bumper mounts.

Our electrical committee spent some time fixing motors to help out the nearby middle school, Golden West. We also spent the day prepping motors for final bot and practice bot, and prepping the talons to continue ID'ing them with the programming committee.

Our programming committee added feedback devices for most of our talons. We also programmed limit switch getters. Our scouting crew finished adding climbspot to tele-op fragment and field diagram.

Our design committee redesigned the hopper because we wanted to maximize our fuel ball capacity. We had to start a new project because our last assembly was broken. We also mounted sensors in the design. Overall, we had a lot of parts cut out today.

Our awards committee are still touching up the Chairman's essay with some editing, as well as Woodie Flowers.

Day 15: Work, Work, Work, Work, Work

Our goals for this weekend is just to work and work.

Our design committee redesigned the hopper to fit the chassis frame. We designed shooter mounts and began to cut them out. We managed to finish the cut out for the side, as well as cut out the first shooter plate. We also organized files and put them into a spreadsheet.

Our mechanical committee started welding the final bot chassis. We decided that we would not be riveting most of the chassis because we noticed the frame was beginning to bend. Welding it would be better, and with all the practice from the alumni, we expect that welding would be the best route.

Our programming committee ID'd the talons with the electrical committee for practice bot. We mapped out what sensors are needed to be places on to the robot and driver control. We are also working on making custom controller and updated the firmware.


Our electrical committee got all of the talons shipped in, and started the talons with programming. We also crimped the batteries.



We are getting closer towards the final design, thanks to our design committee working hard. We are expecting parts to just keep being cut out and lots of jobs to begin soon, hopefully all to be done in one week.

Currently, the climber will still be on the same side as the gear pickup. We are also inputting mechanum wheels to center the fuel balls.

Two questions still stand: how will the balls go from the intake to the magazine? and where do we put our electronics board? So far, we were thinking the roboRIO would be placed sideways, PDP opposite of the roboRIO, and talons on shooter or right there by the shooter.

Day 14: Final Bot Commence!

This Wednesday was the "due date" for solving the issues of the climber and magazine design.

Our programming committee is testing PID and motion profiling. We are trying to work on the CAN interface and connect the raspberry pi to the main robot, sending data back and forth. Our scouting sub-committe fixed the bug with the gear spots, worked on the pit scouting problem (it kept crashing), and creating the climbspot object class.

Our awards committee screpped the introductory paragraph for Woodie Flowers, and conjured up a new (and better) one. We printed out copies of the Chairman's essay to send out to Vanden English teachers tomorrow. We also finished the rough draft of executive summaries.

Our design committee determined how we are doing the lettering on the bumpers using a heat transfer technique. We also modeled the magazine, located right on top of the intake area, infront of the turret. We began to design a mechanum intake, and of course, the climber, where we have decided to play on one side of the turret closer to the gear pickup mechanism.

Our mechanical committee cut and lathed shafts for drive train. We cut metal for the outer structure for bumpers, and there was more practice on welding! More specifically learning plug welding and how to weld a filet end.

We ended the working day with an overview of everyone's jobs and what is to come. Mr. Greem pointed out that he is worried about the supports that were designed for the turret. The current magazine design on top of the intake isn't "for sure" and we will have to continue on making an official design for it. The mechanum screw design we worked on today is an interesting idea, but a con for it is that its 12 inches, leaving not enough room for balls. The climber is still a question, but at least there is a starting point.

Day 13: Coming Up on the Halfway Point

We began Day 13 immediately going into our committees to work.

Our mechanical committee fixed Heimdall's drive system to showcase tomorrow for Demonstration Day - a day when the programs held at Vanden High School are open for 8th graders to come and inform themselves, and hopefully become interested in. We lathed the drive shafts for e-clips and riveted the chassis. We also spent some time cleaning the welding area and practiced welding.

Our awards committee is sending out the Chairman's essay to request parents and mentors to help edit and improve the essay.

Our design committee cut out mostly everything needed for the chassis. We modeled the 3-stage shooter and we are currently working on making the camera on inventor.

Our programming committee is working on I2C on the raspberry pi. We also finished pit scouting and making constructors for a new object class focused on gears. Others worked on making a gear sub-system.

Our electrical committee crimped talons for the robot.

We ended our work day with a little meeting discussing the current issues and what we plan to focus on in the following weeks.

The issues:
Where is the location of the electronics board? A problem for the design and eletrical committees to solve.
What magazine feeder shall we design and decide to use to feed ball into the turret? A problem for the design committee to solve.
Is there and will there be a location for a climbing mechanism? Whole team must decide on this matter soon.

We decided for the deadlines to be the magazine feeder and climber location on Wednesday, and the location of the electronics board on Friday.

The final robot is fully designed except for the electronics board.
We plan (and want!) to finish the final robot by week 5, meaning to finish the robot in 2 weeks!
We want to finish the bottom layer of the chassis as we are awaiting the newly purchased transmissions and transmission box. The current gear pickup location will be on the back of the robot, with battery on the back of the robot as well.

Day 12: Prototype Challenge

Day 12 was a full working day.

Our mechanical committee and some of the design committee had parts of the final bot chassis cut out. We progressed with the prototype of our climber mechanism, and we spent the extra time organizing the stages of versa planetarys' with ring gears and labeled ratios. We plan to do the same with the new order of versa planetary parts.

Our electrical committee worked on proto-board for the connection of motors for the turret shooter. We prepared new talons for the final bot, and spent the extra time with cleaning most of the electrical room.

Our design committee progressed on the climber and almost have the final bot chassis fully designed. We are currently deciding where the location of the gear pickup mechanism will be on the final chassis.

Our programming committee figured out how to correctly tune PI loops. We also created the codes to test climbing, and our scouting sub-committee debugged the pit data and worked on storing said data into an SD card.

Day 11: Surprise! It's Actually a Three Stage Shooter

After a couple of huge design changes, we changed the turret into a three stage shooter.

Due to many of our students volunteering and mentoring the teams at the VEX IQ competition, we had a lack of students.

Many of the students in the programming committee did show up, supervised by Mr. Murphy, and they began learning how to tune PI loops. They mostly worked on the new shooter, but also tested and tuned the PID on the new double wheel shooter.

Members of the design committee showed up and spent most of their time working on the shooter.

VEX IQ Championship

On Saturday, January 21st, the VEX IQ Championship was hosted by Team 701 at Golden West Middle School. We had the extreme pleasure of working with the students at the championship, which was combined with the pride mentors received in watching the teams they've been assisting since September compete with their best efforts. We had 5 elementary schools participate in the championship: Cambridge Elementary School, Foxboro Elementary School, Travis Elementary School, Scandia Elementary School, and Center Elementary School.

We would like to give thanks to all of the students, families, judges, and volunteers who showed up and supported the students in their championship. A big congratulations to Travis and Cambridge, who's teams won the tournament championship! Overall, every single student who participated did a wonderful job in competing, showing of their robotics skills, and having lots of fun!

Day 10: The Two Stage Turret

We started with a very short team meeting, essentially stating that by 5:00 p.m. today we will have to decide which robot design we want our final robot to be.

As we waited on the upcoming official decision, our design committee worked on the new shooter prototype from the design stage to being cut out on the CNC, allowing it to be assembled and tested.

Our electrical committee worked on soldering 775 pros, crimping, and soldering encoder wires for Bang Bang.

Our Awards committee worked on and edited Woodie Flowers.

Our mechanical committee finished the turret shooter and mounted it on to the robot. We also tested vomit bot, showing off the progress of its shooter becoming more accurate.

Our programming committee worked on rudimentary PID running and on testing protobot.

By the end of the day our official decision was to continue with the turret, and making improvement towards it by turning it into a double wheel shooter - the two stage turret.

Day 9: The Two Roads Ahead

We started the day off with a very lively discussion on what kind of robot we want to build. So far, the two paths lead to the "turret bot" and the "vomit bot". We made a list of pros and cons for each robot design, but decided that we would test out the accuracy of each one to determine which one our whole team would prefer to build.

Our programming committee made buttons for testing. Our scouting sub-committee worked on fixing the dialogue fragments for adding spots to the field diagram, and we organized our vision code to be more reusable.

Our design committee designed and finished the bumpers.

Our mechanical committee worked on building the proto-hopper and the shooter prototype. We are progressing on the "vomit bot", putting a transmission with an encoder so that we can control the speed of the wheel as balls go through, to the point where the balls won't slow down. We also mounted the gear intake to the protobot. We also had an alumni come in and help a few students further understand the art of welding.

We are also working on Chariman's and Woodie Flowers. The Chairman's rough draft is currently being edited, and the rough draft for Woodie Flowers has been finished.

Day 8: "The Doom of the Gods"

The official name for our robot this seasons is, Ragnarök.

We started to work on the 4 things we discussed yesterday.

Our mechnical committee was able to successfully build the active gear pickup, new and improved. We cut metal for the new pit we plan to build. We continued having multiple students make versa-planetary with 775's for the climbing mechanism and the intake. With the extra time we had, we cleaned up most of the mechanical room as well as the sheds. We also found an old driver control board to clean and fix to hopefully use for this season.

The over-the-wheel shooter worked through various issues, and it's biggest feat today was shooting consistently at the same spot. We changed the wheels to 8 inch pneumatic wheels and have two 775 pros geared to the same axel. The next step is to make it more consistent and have encoders on transmission.

Our electrical committee mounted the electrical board on protobot. We also got all the motors connected. We are just waiting for the next job.

Our programming committee worked on the simulation for the robot. We also fixed deploying issues. Our scouting sub-committee is having a very good time with our work. We fixed errors in the tab  and redid one on the tab layouts. We also worked on how to connect the raspberry pi.

Our design committee programmed our practice board. We successfully got the shooter prototype to work. We got the final bot chassis designed. We also did CNC work and CAN files, our next step being to CNC more work to be given to mechanical.

Climber is the biggest focus for next week. Space on the robot is being fought against the electronics and gear intake, so we need to fix that problem. Our goal is for the active intake to work and be mounted on the robot for testing. The question arose on whether or not we could make the balls go faster.We also plan to put pneumatics for the gear mechanism and to design further past the final bot chassis. We will also being having a driver's test soon!

Day 7: Protobot is Almost Completed!

We began Day 7 with a discussion on whether or not we should focus our time on the turret because of the occurences yesterday. Alternative designs were brought up, like a drum shooter or our whole robot being the turret. We decided to keep on prototyping our current turret, and if we do not see progress we will move to other designs.

Our programming committee began the day by uploading the firmware to the CAN talons and imaging the roboRio. We also worked on motion profiling and Vision interfaces. Our scouting sub-committee finished up auto and tele-op tabs.

Our electrical committee soldered the circuit board for vision and soldered motors to prepare for practice bot.

Our mechanical committee started to attach turning table for the turret. We created polycarbonate walls for the elevator to guide the ball. We improved fuel intake with curved plastic to life the fuel balls upward. We also had multiple students putting together versa-planetary.

Our design committee finished the electrical board design. We also completed the fourth revision of the shooter prototype design. We finished the protobot design and have already started working on the final bot design.

Our next steps were to continue the climber prototype, finish the over-the-wheel hooded shooter (rev 4), start the under-the-wheel shooter, and finish the "active" gear pickup prototype.

Day 6: On the Way Up

Lots of things were completed today!

Our mechanical committee started creating the elevator in the beginning of that day and finished before the day ended. We were able to successfully get the elevator working. We also tested the turret, but problems arose because of its inconsistency. Thoughts began to exchange on whether or not we should turn our direction to something else.

Our electrical committee did a demo on pratice bot and spent the extra time on cleaning their workspace. There was also lots of team bonding within the electrical committee to get closer with the new rookies that moved into electrical.

Our Chairman's committee finished their rough draft.

Our design committee continued their work on the shooter prototype. We also designed the intake, elevator, lifter, and bumpers for the protobot.

Our programming committee worked on the ball conveyer and the turret. Our scouting sub-committee started on creating the new user screens for the tablets used during scouting, and Vision continued on the skeleton for the code, and worked it out with placeholders.

Day 5: Rules, Rules, Rules!

On Day 5, all of our team took a Rules test about the Steamworks game to ensure that all of our members are well acquainted with the rules of the game.

Some students went with Mr. Green to Grange Middle School to help set up some of the game fields for the VEX competition they were holding.

We held a meeting to discuss what we should do to build an efficient shooter. We had brought up many questions such as, "Should we create a better hopper design?" and "Are there any alternative shooting methods?" We decided that if the hooded design for our shooter did not work, or not efficient enough, a reverse flywheel would be another possibility.

Our programming committe worked on the shooter intake. Our scouting sub-committee finished creating the data saving module, and Vision began on envisioning the skeleton for the code.

Our design committee worked on the shooter prototype, and went with members from the mechanical commmittee outside to test our shooter and its consistency in getting fuel balls into the boiler.

Our mechanical committee finished the passive gear mechanism. We also bolted on the structure for the intake and motors.

Our electrical committee reconfigured the electrical board for protobot. Additionaally, we demolished Beowulf, and fixed the textboard and practice board.

Day 4: Road to the Shooter

As soon as the bell rang to end the school day, we immediately went to our committees for a meeting to see what jobs we could begin to work on.

Our design committee designed the second revision for the prototype shooter, the third revision of the gear intake, and the base of the turret.

Our programming committee continued on helping the rookies on getting situated. Our scouting sub-committee began to work on creating the data saving structure, and Vision added a filter for the shape on the targeting system and gave it "pretty colors".

Our electrical committee disconnected the roboRIO to add more space for pneumatics. We also wired CAN, organized wire buckets, and began to demo the electrical board on one of our old robots, Beowulf.

Our mechanical committee continued to work on the passive gear intake, as well as the fuel intake. There was also a big discussion on the location of the hopper and elevator protoypes with the design committee. The idea was to have the elevator in the middle of the robot, in order to lead the balls up into the shooter. The issue on location was how much space it would leave for the amount of fuel balls that would fit into the hopper. Our solution was to start off with it in the middle and just to test, test, and test to see where the best position would be for the final robot.

Day 3: Don't Stop 'Til You Gear Pickup

On Day 3 of our build season, we began our initial meeting by discussing what kind of gear mechanism we would like to use to figure out which would the most effective way to score gears to the peg. We decided on a "passive" way, where we would just place the gear on to the peg, and the "active" way, where we would be able to pickup gears possibly lying on the field or from the loading zone. We also discussed the ULTIMATE AUTO PLAN, one that could gain us a ranking point in auto if conducted correctly. We want to focus on our protobot and hopefully finish by this week in order to quickly test which ideas would work reliably.

Our Chairman's committee have already begun working on our submission.

Our design commitee finished up working on the flywheel design and currently began working on the fly wheel shooter design. The prototype shooter that was on the shopbot yesterday was finished today and sent away to be tested on. Tweaks are being made as we test out which goal would be easier for us to shoot the most fuel into.

Our electrical committee have been putting all the components needed on to the protobot board, and have begun to wire.

Our programming committee has made theoritical commands in preparation for all the prototypes to be finished and tested. They also began to teach some of the new rookie programmers on the team to practice code in preparation for the final robot.

Our mechanical committee has been split up to work on the two different plans for the gear mechanism. The Passive team began the prototype design, as the Active team finsihed their prototype at the end of the day. We've also been texting different wheels for fuel intake, as well as testing the prototype shooter with multiple fuel balls - along with the design committee.

Day 2: You are a Prototype

We kicked off day 2 to answer our questions of HOW we were going to build the robot for this season.

Our design committee immediately started with planning and creating the design for our competition robot. Additionally, the turret has been designed and has begun to be built. The prototype shooter has also been designed and has been cut out on the shop bot.

Our mechanical committee had to completely rebuild our concept bot, which we created during our off season to give us time to build a chassis that could possibly be used to test in the build season. Unfortunately, we had to scrap the concept bot and create a new one, our protobot, that would fit into the dimensions we are planning for our competition robot. Mentors and alumni helped out today in creating the field elements for this years game. We also started to work on our flywheel shooter and the turret. We also began to make progress on our climbing mechanisms which we tested out using weights.

Our electrical committee had to redo the test board they created during our off season hours, similar to what the mechanical committee had to do, in order to prepare for prototyping. We took apart our previous concept board in order to make the prototype board fit the size constraints of the planned competition bot.

Our programming committee downloaded all the firmware needed to get started for this season. We started a chassis program as well as brainstormed ideas on motors and sensors. Our scouting sub-committee downloaded software and cleaned up the project, and started a whole new one to tidy up the code. There's also lots of planning to do with scouting for this new game, with the difficulties arising in how to count the large amount of fuel that will be entering the boiler. There are also students working on the vision system our robot will be using. We cut the reflective tape to size and changed the RGB values to only pick up the reflection of our LED ring.

Day 1: Full Steam Ahead!

The 2017 FRC challenge surprised us all with a new addition to the game... human players within the field! This exciting new game has us creating new ideas on how to fuel our airship and prepare for takeoff. We began kickoff day at 6 am in our H building, accompanied by FRC Team 2085, the RoboDogs from Vacaville High School, and FRC Team 6474, Armijo Robotics from Armijo High School. Before the game was released, we chose the winner of our pre-season raffle for a new laptop. Congratulations Mr. Salvador! After the game was released and the hype within the teams increased, we split into groups to read sections of the manual. We came together after a sufficient amount of time and discussed the most important rules regarding the game for this year. We then began our ideas of WHAT we wanted our robot to accomplish for this season. We prioritized which elements of the game our team wanted to focus on. After sharing our ideas and a quick break for lunch, we headed over to the Shubin for our "human robot simulation", where members played as robots to give us more ideas and insight as to what we should do for the game. We went back to the room and divided ourselves into small groups to discuss within ourselves what strategies we wanted to use. We then presented those ideas in front of all the members, weighing out the pros and cons of each strategy. After viewing the different strategies brought on by all the members, we chose which one would be the best and which ones we need to focus on to create a prototype for tomorrow.