12.31.12-Dial F for the Right Function

Attendance


  • Fletcher
  • Hunter
  • Evan

Journal


Tasks

  • Assemble field
  • Test New Features on Robot
  • Driver Practice
  • Autonomous Testing

Reflections

New year’s eve, we built the field in Hunter’s garage so that we could test autonomouses and do driver practice. We found that the rack ends are 7.875″ from a perpendicular on the base board [illustrated]

BaseBoard

Once Evan came, we turned the robot on and started driving it.  Once it was verified that everything that had worked worked, Fletcher uploaded some new software to account for the new hardware additions, like the servo that makes the hand go up and down, the fork lift peg, and the new hand.

We turned the TeleOp on, and the robot didn’t move an inch.  Based on past experience, we told Evan to check all wiring on the robot.

All wiring on the robot was checked, even to the point that the entire wiring setup was disassembled.  The robot was still not working.  A new mini-TeleOp was written that only used one motor controller, as one the things thought to be the cause of our problem was the series configuration.  Each time we had things running on the mini-TeleOp, it worked.  We were baffled, why wasn’t our TeleOp working?

Hunter went into the code for TeleOpHR.c (our TeleOp) to comb through and see what was causing the problem.

He found the problem.  It was this:

//the_problem.c
int J2Y2 = joystick.joy2_y2;

This creates a variable J2Ys that holds the current value the joystick is returning, or so we thought. It actually only held the first thing the joystick read when the program is turned on, usually 0.  This is because this function is only called once, since it isn’t a function and rather a variable.  The correct way to do it is this:

//the_solution.c
int J2Y2() { return joystick.joy2_y2; }

This can be called many times, unlike the problem.

After we solved our problems, we shot footage for our Promote award video.

12.29.12-Robots Take what is Given to Them

Attendance


  • Evan

Journal


Tasks

  • Create LED circuits for weighted ring detection
  • Swap out threaded rod drive shafts for a more aggressive one
  • Mount the fork lift mechanism
  • Mount the vertical bucket adjustment mechanism

Reflections

The new drive shafts are installed. With a 4-1 thread ratio it should take about 40 turns of the shaft to move the slide the entire length of the shaft. The threads are very precise and highly polished and the nut is made from a high-strength, low-friction polymer that moves very smoothly and precisely. We mounted both ends of the drive shafts into precision ball bearings, Purchased from McMaster-Carr, authorized by the First Tech Challenge. The entire mechanism is very smooth, has almost no slop or vibration, and should allow for very precise positioning. It should definitely up our game mechanically. Evan is reassembled the scissor, and then Evan had to finish hooking up the LEDs. This mechanism was cleverly put into place by utilizing the principle of two conductors with weight pressing them together completes the very simple circuit of turning on a light bulb, in this case being an LED.  Everything should be ready to test by tomorrow morning. It took a bit longer than Evan had anticipated but it took a bit more engineering than also had been anticipated to design replacement shaft mounts, and Evan had to make totally new slides since the mounting hole spacing of the new nuts was completely different than the old ones.  Evan attached 16 screws to the rear of the robot and then realized that it was very unstable and thus added two cross-members for increased strength and stability. Evan also thought the design for the mechanism.  Evan also very carefully attached a servo style mechanism which allows for increased accessibility and ease of use.

 

Claremont 12.15.12

Attendance


  • Fletcher
  • Mark
  • Hunter
  • Dante
  • Erik
  • Evan

Journal


Tasks

  • Get first place
  • Get the Inspire award
  • Get chosen for the winning alliance

Reflections

At this competition at the beautiful Webb School in Claremont, California, we had a great time.  We started our day by setting up our poster board which we built the night before.  Many teams were impressed how we had a monitor in our poster board.  After, Hunter, Fletcher, and Evan went and did hardware and software inspection and Mark, Erik, and Dante went and scouted.

The inspections were uneventful; we had to update a couple things, firmware and program chooser namely.  The robot passed.

Scouting went well.  We scouted 7 of the 14 teams at the beginning and 7 of the 14 teams at lunch.

Then came our first match.  It started wonderfully with the flawless blocking autonomous, then came the TeleOp phase where we got 2 rings on the top level for 30 points, which won us the match, 30 – 0.

Our second match came, going similarly to the first.  We won again, 15 – 0, putting us in 1st place.

We then had lunch, and during our lunch we put rubber inserts into the treads on the robot in order to give it more traction.

Our third match came and did not go how we expected.  The autonomous worked, but it struggled turning.  The TeleOp phase also did not go smoothly.  Rings were not gotten from the dispenser quiet so well, rings were not put on the rack easily, rings were dropped.  We did not win this match, so we investigated the problem between matches.  We had too much traction.  The rubber inserts did what they were designed to do, but they did that too well.

After lunch, we removed them and all was well, but our most difficult opponents were yet to come.

We had a match where we and our alliance partner felt that we could get 2 tic-tac-toe bonuses, though we did not, and we ended the match losing badly.

We had another lost match, and ended the tournament in 14th.

12.14.12-The Poster, the Bot, and the Management

Attendance


  • Mark
  • Hunter
  • Fletcher
  • Evan

Journal


Tasks

  • Better cable management
  • Place the monitor in the poster board for the slideshow
  • Finish the poster
  • Finish the biographies
  • Create a Bill of Materials

Reflections

Evan started the meeting by doing some cable management.

Hunter worked on making a new poster board for the competition tomorrow.  He cut a hole in the poster board and put a monitor in it so that we can display a slideshow of our amazing achievement.  Hunter is going to work on the poster board further when gets home.

Mark worked on writing some pages for the website such as the About Us page and the Biographies page.

Fletcher made a page Bill of Materials so that it is straight-forward to reprint it for each competition.

Hunter had an epiphany where he found that the current hand was inconvenient when another robot blocks us, but that we could reach over them by using a slide mechanism than moves forward and backward.