Found the local source for the "Regolith" field surface.

Bob, at Thermal Design (formerly Tempco) is our man. His contact information is:
376-0582(office) or 867-0582(Cell).

GlaslinerFRP is normally a 3/32" thick with a light pebble-embossed surface. Smooth surface, other thicknesses and laminated to plywood options are all special order with a long lead-time. (According to Bob)

Standard sheet sizes at 4'x8' and 4'x10'.

The cost is $1.04/square foot. (May be negotiable...)

I will explore today whether the Micron Foundation can assist the local teams by building a playing field - or half of one. I would recommend we still buy a sheet or two of the GlaslinerFRP.


Hey, noted on Bill's Blog (FIRST) that the Orbit Balls may be available at WalMart. Anyone have time to check? He says they are not available online.

Dean

Offense/defence planned

- Pick-up off floor
- controlled rapid shooter- single fire
- 2- stage mechanism
-suck up at bottom and shoot out at top or vice versa
- 4 wheel drive and 4 wheel steering

- make a 38" wide x 28" long chassis

Met with Doug Rule (T-shirt guy) and discussed T-shirt/polo designs. He will bring samples next week for us to vote on.
Discussed design to put on t-shirt.
Doug Rule will have some competition shirt designs for us to vote on by early next week.
T-shirt completion date: February 14.

2009 Robot notes:

PTEC-type robots are not allowed by Rule R11, max width, depth and height. This would also seem to imply firing, carrying and gathering mechanisms cannot exceed these dimensions. Inflatable guards, trailer protectors, etc would also not be allowed by R11. Configuration can change, but dimensions still apply. (R16, G16).

R11:

At the start of, and during, the MATCH the ROBOT shall fit within the dimensions listed below:

Maximum Maximum Maximum Maximum
Width Depth Height Weight
28" 38" 60" 120 pounds
(71.12cm)(96.52cm)(152.40cm)(54.43Kg)

Multiple styles of interchangeable actuators could be designed, each optimized for a certain quality, but all must be weighed together. See Rule R13.

R13:

When determining weight, the basic ROBOT structure and all elements of all additional mechanisms that might be used in different configurations of the ROBOT shall be weighed together. Included in the weight limit are the robot control system, decorations, and all other attached parts.
Example: A team has decided to design their ROBOT such that, before any given MATCH, they may change the configuration of the ROBOT based on perceived strengths or weaknesses of an opponent. The team accomplished this by constructing a basic drive train platform plus two versions of a GAME PIECE manipulator, each manipulator being a quick attach / detach device such that either one or the other (but not both) may be part of the ROBOT at the beginning of a MATCH. Their ROBOT platform weighs 107 lb, version A of the manipulator weighs 6 lb, and version B weighs 8 lb. Although only one version will be on the ROBOT during a MATCH, both manipulators (and all components of the manipulators that would be used during the MATCH) must be on the scale along with the ROBOT platform during weigh in. This would result in a rejection of the ROBOT because its total weight comes to 121 lb.


Put the team number on the bumpers, along with the sponsors. See R14 & R15. Bumpers must be detachable by one team member in less than 10 minutes. (Easy!) Bumpers must stay clear of trailer tongue (R18).

I could not find anything in the rules that stated the position of the trailer hitch must be on the outside perimeter of the robot. Nor could I find anywhere that said it needed to be on the 28” side or the 38” side. We might want to explore this area further. (R18)

The cRIO and camera must be electrically isolated from the chassis. (R41).

Wire sizes, see R45:

R45:

All active Power Distribution Board branch circuits shall be wired with appropriately sized wire:
12 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for all circuits protected by a 40A circuit breaker.
14 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for all circuits protected by a 30A circuit breaker.
18 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for all circuits protected by a 20A circuit breaker.
20 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for the power connection between the Power Distribution Board and the cRIO Mobile Device Controller.
20 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for the power connection between the Power Distribution Board and the Linksys Wireless Bridge
20 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for the power connections between the Power Distribution Board and the Analog Breakouts and/or Solenoid Breakout if individual power feeds are used. 18 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used if a common power feed is used for multiple breakouts.
24 AWG or larger diameter wire must be used for providing power to pneumatic valves.

Decorations are allowed. (R49).

If the suction mechanism lifts the flooring this may be called “damage” and might result in the suction mechanism being disabled. (G30)

There is something called a Robot Signal Light (in the kit of parts) that we need to have mounted on the robot. See R58:

ROBOTS shall use the diagnostic Robot Signal Light provided in the Kit Of Parts. It must be mounted on the ROBOT such that it is easily visible while standing three feet in front of the ROBOT in the STARTING CONFIGURATION. The Robot Signal Light must be connected to the “RSL” supply terminals on the Digital Sidecar, which provides power and control for the light. The team has no direct control over the light and no programming is required.

Put a piece of tape over the CAN-bus connector on the Jaguar speed controls. Keeps dust out and we can’t use them anyway. (R62)

Electrical team: See the note on filters in R68:

A signal filter may be wired across motor leads or PWM leads. For the purposes of inspection and rules compliance, such filters will not be considered custom circuits, and will not be considered a violation of Rule <R53> or Rule <R67>. Acceptable signal filters are:
A one microfarad (1 &#956;F) non-polarized capacitor may be applied across the power leads of any motor on your ROBOT (as close to the actual motor leads as reasonably possible)
A ten kilo-ohm (10 k&#937 or larger resistor may be used as a shunt resistor in-line with the PWM control signal feeding a servo

R69 is interesting in that we may be able to broadcast video from the robot. May need to research this further. The most common video systems broadcast in the 2.4GHz band and will need to be checked for interference with the WiFi communications network.

Any decorations that involve broadcasting a signal to/from the ROBOT, such as remote cameras, must be cleared with FIRST Engineering (via e-mail to frcteams@usfirst.org) prior to the event and tested for communications interference at the venue. Such devices, if reviewed and approved, are excluded from Rule <R57>.

Pneumatics may be used without the compressor. Working air pressure must be less than 60PSI, but the tanks (up to 4) can be charged to 120PSI prior to the match (R01). If the regulator is on the compressor, rather than the output of the tanks, then the robot can only be charged to 60PSI prior to the match (R75).

Notes on Game Play:

The robot may carry or herd only one Empty Cell at a time. (G24).

Rather than focus on delivering Moon Rocks into an opponents trailer during autonomous mode it might be better to operate in an avoidance mode, keeping a distance from competitors.

Dumping rocks into opponent trailers may be better than launching rocks. Dump from the front of the robot after trailing or pinning a competitor to the wall.

Howdy all,

Head Bot Boss here!

Well count me wrong. I never said there would be ice in FRC competition. It ain't ice but it sure is slippery. Looks like "Lunacy" is going to be alot of fun. I like the fact that they brought the human player back. I am a little disappointed that the autonomous is not of much value. I guess that much of the reasoning is to allow all teams to get use to the new control system.

I will be working on the homework of accounting for all past team members.

I'm sorry I didn't stay for the full brainstorming Sat. night. I wasn't feeling to well. I did go home and do some research on the Andy Mark site.

Wheels are $20.00
The planetary gear boxes look interesting. We need to plug in the ratios and determine if we can get an advantage of slow speed high torque for starting on "ice" err plastic.
http://www.andymark.biz/am-0270.html

Also additional control items are less expensive than I thought they would be.

Check out the chain tensioner. It is a simplified version of what we did 2 years ago. We may need to order this or make our own.
http://www.andymark.biz/am-0286.html

A few closing comments and questions.

Suction could be good could be bad. I am thinking if we can apply suction so it is harder for someone to move us, isn't also more difficult for us to move ourselves?

Chassis and drive train need to be a priority. We need to learn to move on this stuff before we worry about how not to be moved.

There are instructions and videos on AnyMark.biz for the KOP chassis.

Who has the FIRST book with the designs for 2006?

Man I got too much to say. As usual. Ya'all should be saying something too!

Sherbot

We went through the calculations for the forces on the robot. There is a VERY low force of friction. There was a discussion on how to overcome that obstical which is creating almost a vacuum underneath the robot to increase the normal force which would increase our force of friction. Our calculations say that we could just about double the weight of the robot which would be huge advantage if it works. We also contacted Blip Toys for purchasing more Orbit Balls.

Events Table (what to display at events): 2 table cloths, laptop/TV/DVD Player showing movie, flyers (FLL and FRC), Buttons (event specific), trophies (need cleaned), posters/photos (FLL and FRC), trifold poster (small), robot, FLL Robot, DVD to play (FRC or FLL), Candy ( only for some events ), plastic bins to carry all of the small things in
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Discussions: Button design for events and competition
T-shirt design for competition
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* We have all of this day's designs for t-shirts and buttons written down *

We looked at things to put in the pit and also worked on the table cloths.
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Everyone keep up the good work!
Check with the Business and Marketing Team for more info on any of this.

1Looked At game hints
Moonfish with blured text backround
2Wheel reasearch
6 different wheel ideas
3 discussed previous chassis designs up close
/looked at last years robot
4Designed chassis on inventor

We discussed the different types of connectors that we could use on the robot. One type was a RJ connector. We went to Lows and bought a RJ-25 Phone Jack to help make a panel that we could put on the robot for the connectors.

we talked about touch screen posibilities and how we could accomplish building one with a computer monitor and other parts. we connected some lcd's to LabVeiw to see if our simple program worked and after a few minutes and checking wires it was working succefully.we also worked on our labview program and discussed about learning C++ over winter break.