Final Push

Today was the FINAL PUSH before a lot of really exciting things happen this weekend:

• We are going to be visited by the local TV station tomorrow morning. 
• We are performing as the halftime show of the girls bball game tomorrow night. 
• We are going to a scrimmage on Saturday at Eagan High School. 
• Lastly, the robot has to be boxed up next Tuesday. 

SO! There were a lot of things to do today!

Ready. Aim. FIRE!

 

 Two new YouTube videos!

We finished the entire shooting and gathering system today. What a major accomplishment for the team (one week early!) and a real testament to how hard and dedicated each and every team member is. We also made major progress on the mascot, our practice bot, Kinect programming, and the halftime show which is on Friday night.

Ride The Roller Coaster

Tons of excitement today! The biggest development of the day is that OUR ROBOT WORKS AGAIN! YES! We also got our new shirts in! They look sweet! We have a new drive station laptop! We got more pulleys in so the whole bottom level of the conveyer works! Exclamation points!

It's Allllive!!

Braaaaaaaains

Another great day of work for Team 3313 Mechatronics. The team worked on a bunch of different projects including: brainstorming the connection of the gatherer and shooter, making the vertical electrical board, putting together the bridge, making the robot drive, and writing the business plan.

The biggest excitement of the day was that we FINALLY got our KitBot to drive. Hard to explain how exciting this development is. As our team tweeted, "I wonder if this is how Dr. Frankenstein felt." Getting the robot to drive was a big undertaking by the programming team (kudos to Colin and Megan) along with the electrical team (among them, Bryce, Spencer, and Jordan). Getting the robot to drive allows the programming team to test out how their code works and also leads the electrical team to fix problems like gear boxes not working or chains being too loose. One funny moment while trying to accomplish this was that we lost a key for a gear box (a very small piece of metal that allows the motor to connect to the sprocket which turns the wheel). The team walked around and dragged their feet like zombies to find it.

Vertical electrical board almost done

Once we got the robot to drive, we were able to take some of it apart. This may seem strange but some of the pieces from the KitBot need to go on our new vertical electrical board so we had to take those off once we knew they worked. Bryce and Bydlon ran power cables to all of the components on the board and all that is left for tomorrow is putting on the walls and running data cables. The layout is very compact and the team did a nice job of wire management (not a strong suit of Mechatronics in the past).

The other big project for today was putting together the bridge that we can practice on. Brandon and Tyler did an awesome job of getting started. All of the wood was cut last night but they still had to organize it and figure out where each piece fits. It should be finished tomorrow which will be a great asset to use once we have our actual robot together in a week or so.

Tyler and Brandon working on bridge

We started to think about how the shooter and gatherer will connect. We facilitated the brainstorming by shortening the shooter and gatherer so they actually fit together. We had to bring a couple parts over to Alex Tech to get shortened. Not much progress on this other than putting them on top of each other and staring at it. Still good to get started.

Lastly, Jenna kept up her work on the team Business Plan for the Entrepreneurship Award. Her perseverance on such an arduous and tedious piece is amazing.

More excitement tomorrow when we have a vertical electrical board and a bridge to stand on. Thank for reading!

Bumps In The Road

Our finished bump.

The team got together today after taking a break the past two days. There was A LOT of progress made. The biggest advancements were with the field elements, the programming, and our business plan.

The team finally got the account at Menard's set up. This will help immensely with obtaining supplies to work on. One of the big reasons so many people were frustrated last week was that we did not have the materials necessary to work on other projects. The account at Menard's allows us to allocate money there we can use during our six week build season. After the season is over, the money that wasn't used gets put back into our account. So we were finally able to use this account today. Bryce, Bydlon, and Tyler got a bunch of supplies needed to build the bump and bridge that will be in the middle of the playing field. Having examples of these will allow us to test our designs before the real competition. They also bought some tools and materials the team needed.

Megan and Colin crossing their fingers that the cRio will work.

After returning with the build materials, Bryce and Jordan got to work cutting down all of the wood. Ryan worked on putting the bump together and got it finished which is awesome. All the parts for the bridge were also cut which will keep people busy the next day or two. Great work and focus by the team to get these done.

Another big development for the team was fixing the cRio. This is the brains of the robot. It is how the robot knows what to do during the competition. With this not working, we would not have a functioning robot, so getting the cRio fixed was a HUGE priority for the team. Colin worked hard this weekend to try and get it fixed but had no luck. After reading Chief Delphi (a robotics forum), Megan and Colin tried using the official netbook the team was given two years ago.... AND IT WORKED! Woo hoo! As stated above, this is a huge development. Colin and Megan said we will have a driving robot tomorrow which is awesome! Great work and perseverance.

Lastly, Jenna and Jesse went around to a bunch of local businesses to pick up cardboard to start making the mascot costume. If you haven't seen our costume design, check out Friday's post. Jenna also worked on getting our business plan together to submit for the Entrepreneurship Award. Great start to a big project.

Before we all left, we set some goals for the second week and posted them on the door to the robot room. They are ambitious but we are already off to a great start. Personal favorite is "shop closes at 9". Awesome that we need to set a goal to stop working. Good work today team!

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

We can launch basketballs!

That's a quote from the A-Team but it might as well be the motto of our build season so far. Prototype week ended on a very high note! We finished both the gate prototype and the shooter prototype today! What an awesome end to a fantastic week. Be sure to check out our youtube page to see videos of both prototypes in action.

We started the day by having a leadership meeting where we discussed where the team's at and other policies we started this year. Overall, things have been going really well but once a week we are planning a leadership check in just to see where things are at and how the team can improve its performance.

Finishing Gate Prototype

The PR team worked more on the mascot costume they are going to make. It is going to be sooo cool!!! Claire worked on making a step by step instruction manual for them to use when they start making it on Monday.The PR team also worked on starting the process for awards. The team has to submit applications for Regional Awards by February 16.

The main excitement today was in shop. We finished the gate prototype that we started yesterday. We found a skateboard wheel that had been grooved out from last year and used that as our pulley system. That switch made the whole system work much better. Check out yesterday's post or youtube for an explanation for why we made the gate.

Our Mascot Design

Molly and Tyler brought the shooter mount over to Alex Tech to get the bearing and mount machined. Unfortunately, that took a while so everyone had left except Bydlon, Bryce, Brandon, and Jimmy when the part was finished. Luckily the part worked great. We threw the part on and started testing. IT WORKED!!! It's hard to explain how satisfying it is to see an idea start as just an idea and then somehow come to life and do EXACTLY what you wanted it to. Just amazing. Brandon worked his butt off making sure the shooter prototype was solid and well built so kudos to him.

Right before we all left, we put the other chain on the KitBot so that is all finished. Colin is taking it home for the weekend to fix the cRio so we should (keyword: should) be able to drive it on Monday. 

KitBot is all ready to go

This was mentioned yesterday but it is unbelievable that only a week ago we did not even know what the game was going to be. There has been so much collaboration and hard work already. We cannot wait to get back to work. Speaking of which, the blog is taking a two day break until work begins again on Monday. We need to "recharge our batteries". As always, thanks for reading.

As the team always says, "Don't worry. It's just a prototype."

The Gate Keeper

Stupid chain...

Today was yet another prototyping day. We kept working on the prototype robot base and built a prototype gate. There were a lot of things going on for people so we did not have the full team today. Jenna and Megan were not there and, luckily, the sky did not come crashing down. The joke(?) around the shop is that they, not Bydlon, are the brains behind the operation. Todd, an instructor from Alex Tech, stopped by to check on our progress. It was great to see him and the Tech College's continued support and help with the team. Speaking of which, we brought the motor mount for the shooter prototype over to the Tech and they are machining a bracket for us. When that is finished, we will be able to test our shooter (finally!).

Claire, Jesse, and Steph kept working on researching items to give away at competition. They researched buttons and wristbands. They also researched more items to commemorate the season for the team which included headbands, wristbands, and dog tags. The big development is that we found an AWESOME mascot costume. Like completely and utterly cool. So excited to see it come together.

Almost there!!

One of our big goals today was completing the KitBot. Tyler and Ryan worked on getting the electrical board mounted to the frame. He also got the motors mounted on to the frame. This is where we hit a snag. We bought the wrong chain breaker so getting the chains on the motors was a long and, ultimately, unsuccessful endeavor. We got one of the chains on the bot but still have one to go. Bryce borrowed a chain breaker from his dad which helped a little. We have one more to go then we should be able to drive tomorrow (this was said yesterday too but this time it will happen). Colin also worked hard to get all the computer aspects ready to drive. We had to format our drive computer, re-image the cRio, and upload all the programming. 

Only need to add the pulley.

Brandon worked on the other big project today which was a gate prototype. There's a video of our idea on YouTube. We have three reasons for making a gate. One: rules say we can only hold 3 basketballs so we need a way to stop extras from coming into our bot. Two: We want to force the basketballs into our gatherer so we want to keep them in the bot once we collect them. Three: We need a mechanism to bring the bridge in the middle of the field down. The idea is a spring on the front of the gate keeps it up whenever we need it. A window motor connected to a pulley will close the gate or bring the bridge down with our gate. Smart idea and the prototype will be finished tomorrow. All we need to do is add the pulley and we are done.

Chandler and students.

A shout-out is required for the presence of Jimmy (Bryce's brother-in-law) and Chandler (Alex Tech Student) for their continued assistance with the team. That's one of the biggest parts about FIRST Robotics, people with expertise working with and teaching the younger students. Really great to see.



Overall, a good day of work for the team. So many exciting things should (key word: should) come together tomorrow. The shooter and gate prototypes will be finished, we will have a moving practice bot and we will get the materials for the practice bump and bridge. That's a lot of goals but the team has shown so far how many things can get done they set their mind to it.

Working for Tomorrow

It's kind of hard to believe it's only the third official day of the build season. It feels like it was a loooong time ago that we learned what this season's game was (turns out it was just five days ago). As mentioned at the end of yesterday's post, the team is still experiencing growing pains. We are working hard to fix them however. The team set up an account at Menard's so it will be MUCH easier to access parts to keep building in the future. Thanks goes out to Connie Nelson, Mr. D., and Laurie Cook for setting that up for us. That was one of the major issues of today and last year. We had a lot of ideas but it was hard to get parts.

In general, most of the things we worked on today will be finished tomorrow. That makes today a little unsatisfying but tomorrow will be awesome. 

Tyler did a great job getting everything ready to start making the bump and bridge set up. Hopefully our account will be ready tomorrow and we will be able to get the materials. This will be very crucial once we start building our actual robot. Testing the robot driving over the bump and balancing on the bridge will be very important.

The build and electrical team worked on two separate projects. The first project was starting on a shooter prototype. The shooter we are envisioning will be a wheel spinning on a CIM motor. The ball will pass through an alley similar to the gatherer prototype we built yesterday. The wheel will be spinning at a high speed and push the ball out. Hopefully we will have video of it tomorrow. Brandon (picture 1) and Chandler worked hard on setting it up. Bryce worked on it a little more later on. Jimmy gave us a bunch of pointers which is awesome.

The other big project for the team today was getting a KitBot built so that the programming team has something to test on. A KitBot just means taking the materials given to us in the Kit of Parts and making a test robot out of it. It also helps us get a better visual clue on where our gatherer and shooter will go and how our bot will drive. Much easier to envision these things on an actual bot instead of in our heads. Bryce started by getting together the electrical board (picture 2). We are trying a new drive system this year, tank drive (picture 3). The only thing left on this project is mounting the motors (picture 4). Colin fought through illness to get the drive computer all set up (Go Colin!). Bryce, Spencer, Chandler, and Allen worked on the KitBot.

Tomorrow we have a lot of things to work on and will be able to get the materials for them too. A bunch of YouTube videos (hopefully) will be posted. Thanks for reading!