Day #35: Field & Intake Assembly; Manufacturing

Manufacturing

Today, students and mentors continued work on manufacturing parts which will be anodized. These parts must be finished by Wednesday night in order to be sent to anodization Thursday, with a return on Friday. Many new materials were received for the intake and shooter. These were also cut and CNC’d for the conveyor, shooter, as well as the hanger.

Intake

We received powdercoated intake parts, and the intake mount was attached to the competition robot.

Field

The upper blue goal was mounted onto the structure that supports it, after much work on the support structure to ensure that the field wall and structure were leveled.

Action Items

• Finish Practice Bumpers
• Ensure field is complete for scrimmage
• Finish parts which will be anodized

Lab Closing Time: 4:40 AM

Day #17: Chassis Arrives & Prototyping Continues

Prototyping

Intake

Students began building a new prototype intake. With four small, vertical, rollers and one large horizontal roller, the intake should work well once complete.

Working on the latest intake prototype

2010 Robot

Students continued constructing a simple bumper onto the 2010 robot, Onslaught. Once complete, the new prototype intake will be attached to the bumper and tested for performance. Also, once the 2010 robot is operational, our driveteam can begin practicing.  Currently, the left side bumper is placed on completely, but the wooden block on the right side is too short.  Students will fix the right side bumper as soon as possible tomorrow.

Attaching wooden “bumpers” onto the 2010 robot

Manufacturing

Today, the team recieved the drivebase chassis back from S&S Welding after sending them out on Monday. Students brushed the drivebase chassis in order to get them ready to be power coated. They will be sent to Pacific Coast to be powder coated tomorrow.  The team expects to get them back by Friday.

Scotch-briting the drivebase chassis

Students also used the lathe to machine spacers for gearboxes. These should be finished tonight or tomorrow morning. Once the plates and shafts are complete, the team will begin to assemble them.

Programming

The programmers continued to work on translating state space and matrix code from 2012’s C++ code to Java.  Currently, they are trying to implement a function that multiplies two matrices together.

Meanwhile, the latest cRIO image (v47) was successfully flashed to the 2012 robot today.  However, the students need to re-deploy the code onto the robot, as the code was erased in the process of re-imaging.

Action Items

• ​Continue machining the shafts and plates for the gearboxes
• Continue testing the 2010 robot and let drivers practice
• Continue designing the shooter, climbing mechanism, and intake

A Weekend of VEX

This past weekend Team 254's seven VEX teams were split between two tournaments, one in Modesto and one in Los Angeles. Teams 254 A, C, and F went down to the CSUN Los Angeles Regional, while Teams 254 B, D, E, and G went to the Central Valley Sack Attack Tournament in Modesto. 254F became an alliance captain at Northridge, and 254E became a captain in Modesto. Every one of our VEX teams reached the elimination rounds for a second consecutive tournament, a fact which every 254 member should be very proud of.

In Northridge, C and F played against each other in one of the division finals, with F moving on to the tournament finals:

In Modesto, 254G went on to win the tournament along with their alliance partners 5327A and 5327C! 254D also posted an outstanding score of 206 in Robot Skills, which currently puts them in a tie for 17th in the world.

Congrats to the success of all our VEX teams this weekend after putting in hundreds of hours of hard work and commitment! These were the last two tournaments planned for Team 254 to attend until the VEX World Championships in April. However, with the recent unveiling of a California State Championship Tournament in March, Team 254 will be reevaluating our future plans for the robotics team as a whole for the coming semester. Currently Teams 254 A, C, F, and G are qualified to attend the first annual California State Championships.

CalGames 2012

This past weekend Team 254 attended CalGames 2012 at Woodside High School, an off-season replay of the FRC game Rebound Rumble.

After 4 wins and 4 losses in qualification matches, 254 was the first alliance choice for the #1 seed, Team 971. Later joined by Team 766, the #1 alliance proceeded through the elimination matches, defeating the #8 alliance, #5 alliance, and the #2 alliance in 2 matches each.  This marks the fourth year in a row that Team 254 has been a champion at CalGames.

Thank you to all the team members, parents, mentors, and friends who represented Team 254 at CalGames!  We could not have done it without the hard work of all our students, including all of the scouts, pit crew, drive team, and more.  A special thanks to the volunteers and mentors who donated their time and energy to help Team 254 work smoothly throughout the competition. I hope all our members enjoyed their first taste of FRC this year, and are looking forward to a fantastic 2013 season!

10/3 Whole team meeting and CalGames Info

At the team meeting today we went through a lot of information rather quickly, and especially a lot to do with CalGames. So here is a brief recap of all of the information from the team meeting:

VEX Captains have requested the number of CAD Licenses, and we can begin installing them on the team laptops tomorrow.

Scouting Leadership applications should be submitted to [email protected] no later than 11:59pm Wednesday Oct. 3rd

Bellarmine VEX Volunteer form is now online! If you are not associated with a VEX team or your captain says it is okay, you can fill out the form to be given a volunteer position. You can fulfill your outreach requirement by volunteering! And get a free T-shirt!

And a list of all the information to do with CalGames:

• CalGames is on Friday October 12th and Saturday October 13th at Woodside High school, 199 Churchill Ave. Woodside, CA 94062
• Friday begins at 3:30, closes at 8:00
• Saturday is 7:00am-5:30pm
• 8 students can fulfill half of their outreach requirement by signing up to volunteer Saturday night. Look to the signups page for more info
• Attendance is limited to 40 team members at a time, so RSVP on the signups page!
• One slot will fulfill a tournament requirement but everyone is encouraged to attend for as long as they are able
• Attendance will be taken at the beginning and at the end of each shift. This is how credit will be awarded. If you are present at time when your name is not on the list, then you will not be given credit for that shift
• Freshmen are required to attend CalGames. If this is problematic, contact Ms. Roemer immediately
• Friday is mainly for returning members, new members are not encouraged to attend
• Consent Forms must be signed and turned in to Ms. Roemer by Wednesday, October 10th. No Consent form means you will not be allowed to attend CalGames
• Rides will not be provided to or from Woodside. Please find your own means of transportation, including carpooling with other 254 members!
• Students who signed up for the CalGames food order should reimburse Ms. Roemer $7 before next Wednesday, October 10th.
• Food will be available at Woodside for those who did not use the sign up form; however, it is on a first come, first serve basis

image courtesy of: //wrrf.org//media.team254.com/CalGames-2012-Logo-FINAL.png

VEX Tournament Meeting

With the VEX season set to start Thursday, we can now begin to plan for the Bellarmine VEX Tournament in November. The first parent and volunteer meeting will occur within the next few weeks. The number of volunteers we get from this first meeting will determine how smoothly the ride will be all the way into November.

FRC Offseason Events

With the robotics season about to begin, Team 254 is set to attend two off season FRC tournaments for the 2012 game Rebound Rumble. Over the next few weeks we will begin preparing and packing for CalGames 2012, which is scheduled to begin October 12th. As the only local FRC tournament in the fall, every team member is expected to attend to show their support for the Cheesy Poofs. After CalGames, Team 254 will travel down to Madera for another annual off season tournament, Madtown Throwdown.  In addition to FRC, a planning meeting for the annual Bellarmine VEX Tournament will happen within the next few weeks.