1/17 - CAD we not?

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"Today some of the CAD team worked on packaging the manipulator with the lift, and drivetrain while others worked on CADing a mechanism to grab trash cans from the step in the center of the field.  I was working on doing the packaging, and we made some good progress.  We can fit the motor version of the Build Blitz onto the lift and are working on packaging a version using a pneumatic piston.  We also tried putting the plow mechanism onto the drivetrain, but it will require more work to fit and not interfere with our stacking abilities.  Other than those changes it seems right now that a few minor changes will be needed to the placement of the lift.  We may also replace our current motor setup for the lift with a west coast gearbox and use chain instead of cable to lift it.  The largest problem we ran into was that when we go to stack totes on the scoring platform, our robot will need to drive partway up the platform angling the robot.  The CAD team and some mentors discussed this problem at the end of the meeting and came up with possible solutions such as a longer manipulator to possibly solve this problem." - Max Ward, CAD & Prototyping Lead

1/13 - 1/16: Autonomous

This week's Build Log is something special. Because Blogger was down yesterday, our Media team has created a PDF to replace the Build Logs from the Tuesday (1/13/2015), Thursday (1/15/2015), and Friday (1/16/2015) meetings. Rest assured - all your pictures and favorite moments from this week are still covered in top-notch quality. You can access the PDF here.

Thanks for bearing with us, and we apologize for the inconvenience. 

-2015 Discobots FRC Media Team

1/12 - Brainstorm. Build. Repeat.

Today was another long meeting day, with some members staying up to 9 PM at CVHS. The focus for the day was to finalize any kinks in the CAD design for our FRC season robot (members were given an opportunity to ask any questions they may have pertaining to the design), and continue work on our first robot / prototype. The first day of driver training also took place in the gym, using Robot v1 (drive train only).

*The images on this post were lost due to an error with Blogger's servers. The problem has since then been resolved and the images that are supposed to be on this post are now hosted under the Media section of our website, available here: http://2015.discobots.org/node/3 *

Programming

Veterans taught newer programmers concepts necessary to in order to program the remote control (user input / output processing). They also set up the new controls systems and ran a few basic beta tests on a prototype drive train. CAD designers continued to work on completing a fully detailed model of our season design, adding elements covered in our group and leader discussions 

Electrical Subdivision + Prototyping + Mechanical Subdivisions

     New members learned how to make PWM cables, assisted by senior members. They also completed the remaining part of the 2nd power distribution board from the last meeting, and worked on unpacking the drive train (to the left).
     As previously mentioned, members from these divisions continued their work on the first of our three season robots, a.k.a. the prototype. [See CAD models + accompanying captions] The lift is powered by 2 Versaplanetary gearboxes with double reductions... these motors drive a spool that will pull the lift up and down. This also incorporates the established slide mechanism [See earlier Build Logs].