Build Season Week 4 Blog

Prototyping Climb Decision:

Telescoping arm – After weight and packaging considerations by the team at large, we made a DVC decision to redistribute the workforce of the windmill climb to the telescoping climb. The windmill design added extra structure and instability, which increased weight and made integration more difficult. The telescoping climb offered a more compact and straightforward solution that fit better with the rest of the robot. Refocusing the workforce allowed the team to improve reliability and spend more time testing and refining the final climb system.  

Intake & Store:

This week, we have been finalizing the wire management of the intake motor, as well as the mounting for the back wall of the hopper. We decided to use 3M Dual Lock to attach the back wall to the side walls, so it’s easier to access the battery and service other mechanisms above the drivetrain. We also decided to bend the back wall around our climb rather than go around it to make it easier to attach and detach.

Spindexer:

The CAD and design of the dye rotor were adjusted throughout the week. We were able to make a lot of progress CAD-wise, and we began manufacturing the hex shaft and 3D prints. The design of the dye rotor is nearly complete, and we are finalizing the bill of materials to ensure we have all the necessary parts. We hope to begin manufacturing on 2/11 so that we can begin assembling by the weekend.

Turreted Shooter:

Over week 4, we started to test the shooter by itself on beta bot. We confirmed that all of the motors and wiring was working and worked through tolerance issues between the 10dp hood sector gear and the pinions. After fixing those issues, we worked on CADing a wire guard for the wire ribbon that feeds power to the shooter motors.

L1 Telescoping Climb:

This week we began work on the CAD for our L1 telescoping climb. We had some initial issues with location, as we are the last subsystem to begin final work, there was not much space left on the robot, especially in places that would be good for a climb. Eventually, we were able to place the climb to the side of the battery, and we quickly CADed a first draft. In the middle of the week, we briefly switched to an elevator instead of a telescope, but we decided to revert to the original idea due to design limitations. CAD made great progress through the week, and we are confident to have a CAD ready for a critical design review at the start of Build Week 5.

Drivetrain and Control System Board:

This week we installed a new polycarb panel and installed a battery plate to provide more top-side space for mechanism components alongside the robot battery. We determined we will not need a 2nd MPM unit, so we removed it from the CSB and decided to install our CANdle in its place, as this year we are planning to use programmable LEDs on the robot for driveteam and scouting feedback.

971 Week 0 Scrimmage and Shout-Out:

We are looking forward to participating in 971 Spartan’s Robotic Week 0 scrimmage on 2/28. This will be the first opportunity to see how our robot operates as a member of an alliance, and provide our drive and pit teams with experience under more realistic match and event conditions.

A special shoutout to our friends at FRC Team 971 Spartan Robotics who graciously loaned us a pair of 10t Steel Spur Gear (10 DP, 1/2″ Hex Bore) for our shooter, we are truly appreciative as this allowed us to start testing our shooter on our practice field.

Drum roll, Please:

The results are in and this year’s competition robot will be named VALENCE. We can’t wait to share our reveal video ahead of our week 2 district event.