New Season Update

Already seven weeks into the start of the new school year, we have had many events, including workshops and team meetings, to kick off the new robotics season.

Our first mandatory meeting for the team was at the Introduction meeting, where all incoming freshmen, new members, and existing members were formally introduced to the leaders of Team 254 and students became familiar with the expectations for this new season. There was an outstanding attendance as over 130 interested participants registered for the team afterwards. We also held a parent meeting where we presented new information to parents and answered questions.

In the following week, we officially began the VEX season with our VEX Kickoff, where we introduced this year’s new game “Sack Attack” for those who have not seen it yet or were interested in participating in VEX this year. Jonathan Chang led the meeting and explained the design process each team must follow, along with safety regulations for Bellarmine’s new lab. New VEX teams were released and captains then led each sub-team to discuss game strategy and begin their brainstorming process.

Finally past the busy start of a new season, we smoothly transitioned into the Zero Robotics Kickoff led by Richard Lin, different workshops including Graphic design led by Kyle Schnoor and PR/Marketing led by Avery Strand, and VEX builds. Each VEX team presented their team’s robot design to the mentors, who gave their critique to each team, and teams now in the process of building each robot according to their CAD drawings. We have just begun registering teams for VEX tournaments, the first one already starting in October at San Ramon.

The mentors, leaders, and sub-captains are all looking forward to another great VEX season this year to follow up with last year’s excellent performance at the World Championships. As a reminder, you should still check the calendar often for meetings and lookout for upcoming workshops that interest you.

Media Week of September 3rd

The new 2012 team sweatshirt is moving closer to being completed, we have a good design we are running with and it looks like it’ll be done soon. We have our first Graphic Design meeting of the season after the whole team meeting on Wednesday. It will be located in the the new robotics lab (formerly the wrestling building). I hope to see many of you there to learn about Graphic Design and Animation.

FRC Pre-Season Planning

As the robotics school year ramps up the FRC team is also planning for next season. We will be having a planning meeting in the near future so check your emails for any upcoming event. This meeting will discuss any issues we had last season and possible solutions to them for the season to come. We will also discuss possible alternative projects for FRC Fridays to complete prior to next season.

Graphic Design Meetings

The graphic design and animation meetings will be coming up starting next Wednesday, the 5th of September. I’m hoping to see a great turn out this year. It’ll be great if I can get more people coming to these. Remember, come to the Graphic Design Meetings, we have cookies.

PR Update

Alright guys, here’s the PR update of the week. We’ve now had our two introductory meetings for the freshmen and returning members, and are ecstatic about the results. Seventy five freshmen signed up! Add that to our returning members and we’re going to have a great time this year. Over the next three days, we’re going to have VEX workshops, as well as the first parent meeting in awhile, so make sure you attend those! The VEX workshops are going to be amazingly helpful, and the parent meeting is a great way to stay in the loop. Remember to check your emails and the blog! Communication is key.

FRC Fridays

As the new school year begins, all aspects of the Bellarmine Robotics Team go into full bloom. Along side other major subjects such as Finance, VEX, Graphic Design, and of course FRC. Soon we will be establishing FRC Fridays as a way for both new and old members to be introduced into FRC in the offseason and get involved in the program. In our near future we will be finishing upgrades designed throughout the summer with Shockwave and will continue on to other projects needing to be finished prior to the beginning of the FRC season. Stay tuned for updates and upcoming times and locations for FRC Fridays.

PR Update

This week we went to Diversity Day, and had an open lab for freshman to attend. Both were huge successes. At diversity day, we had approximately 100 people stop by to see the robot, as well as many who got to play with it. At the open lab, we had about 60 people attend, 24 of which were incoming freshman. We set up five stations for them to attend, all lead by our leadership team and senior team members. We had Machining with Mani, Louis, and Cory, Driving with Aaron and Abhi, Building with Nick (Eyre) and Kyle, VEX with Jonathan Chang, and Programming with Richard. Everything went smoothly and we’re looking forward to the oncoming year.

San Jose Sharks Street Rally

Team 254’s T-Shirt Cannon made an appearance in San Jose today at a Street Rally for the San Jose Sharks, a professional hockey team.  The Sharks play their first home game today against the Atlanta Thrashers and celebrated the occasion with a pre-game street rally.

The rally was a ton of fun and the robot was quite popular.

Sharks to Host Street Rally

Technical Specifications

 Features:

• Ten Barrel Revolver/Gatling Action
• Automatic Barrel Indexing
• Motorized Adjustable Pitch – Horizontal to +60 degrees
• Adjustable Range Control Via Electronic Solenoid Valve
• Six-Wheel Drive, Off-Road Capable Chassis
• Wireless Control
• Capable of launching 3+ T-Shirts per second
• Also Capable of launching racquetballs or hacky sacks

Technical Specifications:

General

• Dimensions:  28″ Wide, 38″ Long, 18″ Tall
• Weight:  160 Pounds
• Top Speed:  12+ Feet Per Second
• Capacity: 200+ Shots per Tank
• Projectile Range: 150+ Yards

Mechanical

• Qty 10 – 2.5″ OD, 2.375″ ID Barrels x  24″ Long
• Globe Motor Barrel Revolver Mechanism
• Van Door Motor Pitch Adjustment
• Pneumatic Cylinder Indexing/Lock
• Gas Spring Assisted Pitch
• High Pressure SCUBA Tank Reservoir at ~3300 psi
• Low Pressure Regulated SCUBA Tank Accumulator at ~120 psi
• 1″ NPT MAC Solenoid Valve at ~17.0 cV Flow Capacity with a 23 ms Response Time
• Norgren Low Pressure Regulator for Cylinder Indexing
• H2Oddysey Tank Mounted SCUBA Regulator

Electrical

• Power Source:  12 Volt, 17 AH  SLA Motorcycle Battery
• Controller:  VEX PIC Micro-controller with VEXNet 
• Wireless Protocol:  802.11 g Wi-Fi @ 2.4 ghz
• VEX Pro Victor Speed Controllers
• VEX Pro Spike Relay Modules
• 12 Volt MAC Solenoid Valve for T-Shirt Launching
• 12 Volt Rexroth Solenoid Valve for Cylinder Indexing

About Shockwave

In Summer 2010, Team 254 decided to build a T-Shirt Shooting Robot to be used for promotional events.  After two months of hard work, our robot debuted at a spirit rally at our school, Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose.  The robot was received very well and was loved by the students at the rally.

Team 254 plans to use its T-Shirt Cannon Robot to promote the team and its sponsors.  We will be bringing the cannon to team and school events as well as sponsor events.

For detailed information about the design and build process as well as the cannon’s technical specifications, please visit the following pages:

Build Process

Technical Specifications

Videos

Photos

Bellarmine Spirit Rally

The T-Shirt Cannon made its debut tonight at the Bellarmine Spirit Rally.  Set before the school’s football game against its rival, St. Francis of Mountain View, the rally aims to boost school spirit and morale before the game.

The T-Shirt Cannon came out in the middle of the rally and shot 30 T-Shirts at students stationed across the gym.  The students aimed to catch the T-Shirts in trash cans in order to win spirit points.

The rally was a great success and the T-Shirt Cannon was a huge hit!

Robot Complete

After more than two months of hard work, Team 254’s T-Shirt Cannon is complete.  

Today, we recieved the parts neccesary for us to fill our high-pressure SCUBA tank.  After filling the tank, we tested the robot extensively to determine how many shots could be taken on a single air fill.  On one air fill, the robot can shoot more than 200 shots, well above our initial estimates.

We are very pleased with how the robot turned out and look forward to using it to promote our team, our school, our sponsors and our community.

First Shots

The robot took its first shots today, shooting racquetballs.  The robot shot extremely far, with distances yet to be officially measured.

For today’s shots, the robot’s tanks were filled by a shop compressor in the lab to approximately 100 psi.  Early next week, we hope to start powering the shots off of the SCUBA tank.

Indexing & Tilting

After many days of work, the robot is almost complete.  Today, we completed the indexing and tilting mechanisms and tested the robot in the lab without a projectile.  The whole system seems to be working great.

Revolver Mounted

A ton of progress was made today on the robot.  The valve block was tapped for the 1″ NPT hose.  Furthermore, we were able to get the pivot shaft for the revolver completed so that we could mount the revolver on the base.

In the next few days, we hope to complete the indexing and tilting actions of the revolver.

Programming, Machining & More

Today, at the lab, we started programming the VEX controller on the robot.  We finished the drive code and wrote simple code to open the main valve for a certain number of milliseconds when a button is pressed.  Furthermore, the VEX controller was wired to the main robot power source after we confirmed with VEX that the controller will run off of 12V.

The main valve block is almost done with machining.  All of the operations on the CNC Mill are complete and all that remains is tapping the pipe threads into the hole for the main hose, which will happen in the next few days.

Today, we got the main hoses in the mail as well as our scuba regulator.  We hooked up the scuba regulator to the high pressure tank and found a 3/8″ UNC fitting that would connect to the regulator.  We then connected it to the low pressure tank with the hose.

Wiring Complete

Today, we completed the wiring on the T-Shirt cannon.  The large gauge wire and the signal wire was run successfully.

Furthermore, we tested the valve,shooting T-shirts and small balls on a test bed outside the lab to test the range of the robot.

Powder Coated and Wiring Started

The robot returned from the powder coat shop today.  The scuba tank also returned from hydrostatic certification after passing its tests.  We hooked it up to a test bed and successfully tested the valve.

The machining on the valve block has begun and is coming along great.  The block will be finished on Sunday.

Wiring on the robot began today.  All of the electronics were mounted on the drivebase and many of the power wires were run.  The large gauge power wires and the signal wires still need to be run.

Frame Welded

The T-Shirt Cannon’s frame has returned from welding.  The frame was prepped for powder coating today and will be brought to the powder coat shop tomorrow.

The high-pressure scuba tank will be brought to Ace Fire Equipment & Services in East Palo Alto tomorrow to get its hydrostatic certification renewed so that it can be safely filled with high-pressure air.

Frame Ready for Welding

After several days of hard work, the frame of the T-Shirt Cannon is ready to be welded. The framerails have been machined and riveted onto the baseplate.  The superstructure frame has been pinned to the drivebase.  Finally, the mounting blocks for the sideshields have been cut and a welding jig to hold them in place has been made.

The revolver plates have been machined and the tubes inserted between the plates.  Once standoffs to go between the plates are machined, the assembly will be ready to weld.

We will hopefully get welding done early next week.