exactly four weeks to ship from yesterday!
yesterday was a productive, if chaotic, day....
annie headed the effort to start using a motor to actuate the cam. decided on a van door, will hopefully be testing today.
shifrah, sarah r, and lindsey worked on a prototype for pneumatics actuation with a gate hinge. shif cut wood in the shop during lunch and they'll be done with that soon.
anndini drilled holes in the 8020 for the better prototype of marvin.
caroline wrote new drive code with some of the new programming team members. we tested it on chad. the wireless bridge REALLY does not like going over the bump. at all. not even a little bit. we think that it's a combination of just the innards of the bridge and the crio connections. we're insulating the bridge, and we shall try to order another one.
drills have been researched and we will order a new dewalt asap.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
monday 1/25
hello!
chad goes over bumps! chad operates pneumatics! chad is amazing!
[chad is the kit chassis.]
unfortunately, chad does not go over bumps too well --- there are quite frightening crashing sounds when he lands. and the wireless likes to shut off. sticky wheels at the back work better than slick wheels at the back, though. but we as much as we love chad, we would prefer to not actually have to use him. especially as he has an attitude problem
PAIATAAOTGOR team wants you to know that they were successful in their robotics mission. they are about to go on an ACE run to get hinges etc to take their kicker mechanism to the next level.
the chassis [preemptively named "marvelous marvin"] is being drawn up by nandini.
sallie, divya, and santhi are wiring up various sensors. i THINK i found accurate documentation for the gyro [rate: signal, 5v, gd], but i cannot decipher the accelerometer documentation.
victoria, kylie, and shreya have been working on the lego robot, aka henry. they are screaming very loudly so as to trigger the sound sensor.
thank you to mr dean for chaperoning and to the harris family for dinner.
and a reminder that we are meeting until 8:30 this week.
chad goes over bumps! chad operates pneumatics! chad is amazing!
[chad is the kit chassis.]
unfortunately, chad does not go over bumps too well --- there are quite frightening crashing sounds when he lands. and the wireless likes to shut off. sticky wheels at the back work better than slick wheels at the back, though. but we as much as we love chad, we would prefer to not actually have to use him. especially as he has an attitude problem
PAIATAAOTGOR team wants you to know that they were successful in their robotics mission. they are about to go on an ACE run to get hinges etc to take their kicker mechanism to the next level.
the chassis [preemptively named "marvelous marvin"] is being drawn up by nandini.
sallie, divya, and santhi are wiring up various sensors. i THINK i found accurate documentation for the gyro [rate: signal, 5v, gd], but i cannot decipher the accelerometer documentation.
victoria, kylie, and shreya have been working on the lego robot, aka henry. they are screaming very loudly so as to trigger the sound sensor.
thank you to mr dean for chaperoning and to the harris family for dinner.
and a reminder that we are meeting until 8:30 this week.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
thursday 1/21
it's been a long while since i've properly updated -- sorry! we've come a long way.
chad, the kit chassis with last year's electronics board but this year's labview code, is FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY up and running! it's terribly exciting.
marion, victoria, kylie, and caroline are going to work on pneumatics code. anna m has been spearheading the pneumatics movement, which is really awesome. the current pneumatics setup is slightly sketchy. we may possibly have been hardwiring to the battery, but we are in the process of hooking everything up [safty FIRST!] carefully following instructions.
aneesha, anna h, kaley, and tobi are working with mr cardinal to build the bump tonight. thank you so much for his help!
we've had some serious laptop/labview issues. after getting the new laptop from tech and installing labview 8.6, we think that labview is not windows7 compatible. this is a problem, meaning we won't be able to code on the new one successfully unless we downgrade to xp. mehhhh.
we have essentially decided that the design for the kicker that we want to pursue is the surgical tubing/4 chairs concept. a rectangular frame with a metal rod running though it with surgical tubing attaching to the top pulling the back of the kicker, allowing you to release quickly. i'm not sure that description is the easiest to understand, but i shall try to upload some pics whenever i have a moment.
more later
chad, the kit chassis with last year's electronics board but this year's labview code, is FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY up and running! it's terribly exciting.
marion, victoria, kylie, and caroline are going to work on pneumatics code. anna m has been spearheading the pneumatics movement, which is really awesome. the current pneumatics setup is slightly sketchy. we may possibly have been hardwiring to the battery, but we are in the process of hooking everything up [safty FIRST!] carefully following instructions.
aneesha, anna h, kaley, and tobi are working with mr cardinal to build the bump tonight. thank you so much for his help!
we've had some serious laptop/labview issues. after getting the new laptop from tech and installing labview 8.6, we think that labview is not windows7 compatible. this is a problem, meaning we won't be able to code on the new one successfully unless we downgrade to xp. mehhhh.
we have essentially decided that the design for the kicker that we want to pursue is the surgical tubing/4 chairs concept. a rectangular frame with a metal rod running though it with surgical tubing attaching to the top pulling the back of the kicker, allowing you to release quickly. i'm not sure that description is the easiest to understand, but i shall try to upload some pics whenever i have a moment.
more later
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
STRUCTURAL SUBTEAMS!
drivetrain
mentor: stephen
lead: nandini
code: caroline
tobi
sara h
meghana
kicker
mentor: santhi
lead: anne
code: divya
annie
aneesha
"pneumatics as it relates to... things" [pairtt]
mentor: holly
anna m
shifrah
sarah r
lindsey
elevation
mentor: karlin
lead: allie
code: sallie/sherri
teresa
hopefully the other new team members will join the various subteams soon. thanks to all for a great design review! i'll try to write more late.r
mentor: stephen
lead: nandini
code: caroline
tobi
sara h
meghana
kicker
mentor: santhi
lead: anne
code: divya
annie
aneesha
"pneumatics as it relates to... things" [pairtt]
mentor: holly
anna m
shifrah
sarah r
lindsey
elevation
mentor: karlin
lead: allie
code: sallie/sherri
teresa
hopefully the other new team members will join the various subteams soon. thanks to all for a great design review! i'll try to write more late.r
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
from anna
anna can't figure out how to post so i am posting this for her:
also, i (shreya again) wrote a poem
we don't know why
and we don't know how
but our projector
smells like a cow.
wednesday
summary version of where we're at:
caroline, karlin, and i got extremely frustrated with the downloading mishaps and decided just to go home on time yesterday. we will continue wrestling with it on friday, but as we can actually write code and download it, we are not going to continue driving ourselves insane.
SO: tonight, we have four groups of people working on things.
caroline is working with lindsey, shreya, emilie rw, marion, kylie, and victoria and is walking them through the labview code from last year. we were hoping to have a projector to make teaching/explanation easier, but we could not manage to get the projector to work.
allie is working with teresa, annie, aneesha, and meghana and putting chain on the kit chassis. we're definitely going to stick with 35 chain this year, since we can't come up with good concrete reasons to switch to 25 and it is a huge hassle.
anna and shifrah are heading up a group that is prototyping a PNEUMATIC ACTUATOR!!!! i am very excited about it. yay for experimentation and messing around with parts.
tobi and a group are working on a pincher mechanism with 80/20.
thank you to mrs holston for dinner and chaperoning and to jessa for turning up!
caroline, karlin, and i got extremely frustrated with the downloading mishaps and decided just to go home on time yesterday. we will continue wrestling with it on friday, but as we can actually write code and download it, we are not going to continue driving ourselves insane.
SO: tonight, we have four groups of people working on things.
caroline is working with lindsey, shreya, emilie rw, marion, kylie, and victoria and is walking them through the labview code from last year. we were hoping to have a projector to make teaching/explanation easier, but we could not manage to get the projector to work.
allie is working with teresa, annie, aneesha, and meghana and putting chain on the kit chassis. we're definitely going to stick with 35 chain this year, since we can't come up with good concrete reasons to switch to 25 and it is a huge hassle.
anna and shifrah are heading up a group that is prototyping a PNEUMATIC ACTUATOR!!!! i am very excited about it. yay for experimentation and messing around with parts.
tobi and a group are working on a pincher mechanism with 80/20.
thank you to mrs holston for dinner and chaperoning and to jessa for turning up!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
a very productive day!
hello everybody! shreya here. i've been appointed "official blog person" so get used to me :)
it's the 4th day of the season and the robotics room is buzzing! build and programming alike a re busy as bumblebees!
happening today:
- sherri, caroline, sallie, divya and karlin are trying to fix the wireless connection--basically, several parts have identity crises and are not aware they exist. and they need therapy.
- anne and nandini filled in our lovely mentors, stephen and holly, on this year's challenge
- anna, shifrah, emily and i built a prototype chassis
- annie, sarah, christine and meghana built a prototype kicking mechanism
- tobi, nina and aneesha worked on a prototype pinball flipper thing for kicking the soccer ball
- allie, lindsey and victoria inventoried parts :D
chaperone and dinner was my mom (aka kc), who offered these words of wisdom: there is no such thing as too much garlic bread.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
and away we go!
hello!
it's strange to think that season's already started -- sixth year!
yesterday was kickoff. the challenge this year is essentially a modified soccer game with "bumps", and a "finale" involving robots elevated onto platforms. here's a link to a youtube of the animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEHAj3EmpMw
caroline, anna m, anne, and i [sherri] went down to sj at the crack of dawn to receive the challenge and get the kit of parts. we came back to school and kicked off with the larger team and community at noon. i definitely think it was the biggest kickoff yet! over fifteen new team members showed up. we had an initial brainstorming session which we are continuing today. yesterday, we also inventoried the kit of parts, began to read the manual, and began to set up for labview/downloading.
this morning, we outlined major dates and guidelines. we want to have a design review sometime in the 17th-19th, actually choose a design, especially for drive train, by the 22nd. sometime early in season, we need to actually make a decision: do we want a gripper/elevation thing or not? we don't want another scotty-situation.
allie is going to create a twitter account for us.
we have a list of tasks/jobs that need to be done, especially things that underclassmen can do...
blog -- shreya
inventory robotics lap?
bill of materials
"manual expert" -- anna m
cart -- sarah r
picasa/photos -- teresa
junior safety captain?
youtube scout -- victoria
bumpers
game components
and off we go! thank you to ms mourad, the mentors who came yesterday, and all the parent support. we couldn't do it without you. let the madness begin.
it's strange to think that season's already started -- sixth year!
yesterday was kickoff. the challenge this year is essentially a modified soccer game with "bumps", and a "finale" involving robots elevated onto platforms. here's a link to a youtube of the animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEHAj3EmpMw
caroline, anna m, anne, and i [sherri] went down to sj at the crack of dawn to receive the challenge and get the kit of parts. we came back to school and kicked off with the larger team and community at noon. i definitely think it was the biggest kickoff yet! over fifteen new team members showed up. we had an initial brainstorming session which we are continuing today. yesterday, we also inventoried the kit of parts, began to read the manual, and began to set up for labview/downloading.
this morning, we outlined major dates and guidelines. we want to have a design review sometime in the 17th-19th, actually choose a design, especially for drive train, by the 22nd. sometime early in season, we need to actually make a decision: do we want a gripper/elevation thing or not? we don't want another scotty-situation.
allie is going to create a twitter account for us.
we have a list of tasks/jobs that need to be done, especially things that underclassmen can do...
blog -- shreya
inventory robotics lap?
bill of materials
"manual expert" -- anna m
cart -- sarah r
picasa/photos -- teresa
junior safety captain?
youtube scout -- victoria
bumpers
game components
and off we go! thank you to ms mourad, the mentors who came yesterday, and all the parent support. we couldn't do it without you. let the madness begin.
Friday, January 01, 2010
Crate Progress
Today, Shreya, Shifrah, Anna, Tobi, Sherri and I (Annie) met at Castilleja to build the crate. The design is similar to our previous crate with a few modifications. Firstly, it is lighter, as we used lighter plywood for the sides. Also, it will be kept inside, so it will stay dry and last much longer than our old one.
We finished the two halves and are waiting to complete until the season starts because it won't fit up the elevator in the Arrillaga building, but for storage it will be kept in the Gym, as it is 4" thinner and will fit in that elevator. The halves are currently in the robotics room.
Many thanks to everyone who helped out, especially Ms. Mourad and Mr. Cardinal for supervising.
Happy New Year!
~Annie
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
2010 Season!
Hello!
I hope you're all excited about the upcoming season -- this email (sorry for the length...) will outline some important dates/general information about the team.
-Anne sent all team members a spreadsheet earlier tonight asking for contact information for you and your parents. Please do fill it out whenever you have a minute.
-Kickoff is Saturday, January 9th, 12-4. A few team members will be going to receive the Kit of Parts and the challenge information early that morning, and then we will all meet at noon in the Choral Room to share the challenge and begin brainstorming. As we start to design, brainstorm, and unpack all the good gadgets and gizmos, there will be a parents meeting, so please encourage your parents to come.
-We'll meet Sunday the 10th and Monday the 11th from 11-3. The juniors arrive back on Sunday.
-The team will work daily in the evenings after school, and weekends, to design, prototype and build the robot/cart, develop the programming that controls it, and other various roboticsy activities. Find the project that interests you most, work hard and HAVE FUN!
-Some people have asked about choosing between build v programming -- the choice is entirely up to you. You can certainly wander between both for a few weeks, and you will probably naturally gravitate to one subteam or the other.
-As it is a school rule that we have chaperones at all times, we do ask that parents help provide supervision and meals.
-Ship date/final deadline is February 23 2010. This is the week after February break, unlike previous years. In my experience, the days leading up to ship, this year throughout Break, have been the most involved and most exciting. If your family has not already made plans, I definitely encourage you to stay through break -- it's amazingly fun.
-March 4-6 is Portland Regional Competition. About fourteen team members will go. In previous years, we've been in the seventh seeded alliance.
-March 18-20 is the Silicon Valley Regional at San Jose State. All team members participate in this exciting competition. Last year we won the Xerox Creativity Award and were, once again, the seventh seeded alliance.
-Should we qualify to go onto Nationals at either Portland or SVR, we will get to go to Atlanta for the Nationals, April 15-17 2010. We obviously don't know if we'll qualify, but those are the dates. Once again, about fourteen team members will be going.
-We'd love for the whole team to go to the out-of-town competitions, but unfortunately that is not financially or organizationally feasible. Team members will qualify to attend the out-of-state tournaments by hard work and dedication to meeting the goals of the team and through their "gracious professionalism."
Oof! Thanks for making it through to the end of this email.
To summarize: Fill out the spreadsheet. Kickoff January 9th, noon. Working in the weeknights from roughly 5:30 onwards, weekends tba. Drills. Programming. Designing. Food. Much goofiness. Fun.Thanks so much! We're so excited for this season.
Our website is gatorbotics.com and picasa site with pictures is http://picasaweb.google.com/castilleja.robotics
Sherri Billimoria
Team Lead
650-464-8746
Caroline Abbott
Technical Lead
650-804-4403
Sunday, March 29, 2009
DAVIS
we're back from davis!
it was a hectic and crazy three days, as always. while the tangible results might not show it, we did really well. i'm proud.
summary version: we ranked 15th, but did not get chosen for an alliance. [ironic! when we're 44th out of 48 we get chosen, but not when we're fifteenth?] and we didn't win any FIRST awards. although, team 100 bestowed upon us the "radical resourcefulness" award, which was fun :)
quick recap of each day...
thursday
- set up new driver's station
- as tends to happen with our tempermental paddle, code decided to just Not Work. it completely bypassed the "opening state" and wouldn't do anything. so we switched to a timer based code, which was effective although sketchy.
- the front brush gearbox literally fell apart. we superglued it back together.
- discovered one set of chain was absurdly loose, tightened it by taking off skateboard wheel and removing a link or two.
friday
- everyone else arrived!
- karlin showed up how to use a flat sequence structure to make the brains wait before checking the limit switch again, so the paddle would actually work. but it didn't, really...
- we won 4 out of 6 matches! we were ranked 11th at the end of the night.
- chairman's interview went well
i can't remember what else happened...
saturday
- we won one out of our three matches, ranked 15th at the end.
- didn't get chosen for an alliance, but were the second alternate
- had judges in our pit all day, chatting and interviewing
- after alliance picking, we packed everything up and took all the crates out to the car, crated up sadie
-only to have an event volunteer come over to us tell us we had to get the robot out NOW because we were ON DECK. frantic uncrating and bumper attaching resulted, and then we were told, no, you're not on deck, you're just the alternate. so if ANOTHER robot fails, then maybe you'll be on in fifteen minutes. HA. well, i suppose it was a good drill. we now know we can uncrate and be ready to go in five minutes flat!
all in all, it was a great regional. hope everyone else also had a great time.
before atlanta: fix the paddle. yet again.
it was a hectic and crazy three days, as always. while the tangible results might not show it, we did really well. i'm proud.
summary version: we ranked 15th, but did not get chosen for an alliance. [ironic! when we're 44th out of 48 we get chosen, but not when we're fifteenth?] and we didn't win any FIRST awards. although, team 100 bestowed upon us the "radical resourcefulness" award, which was fun :)
quick recap of each day...
thursday
- set up new driver's station
- as tends to happen with our tempermental paddle, code decided to just Not Work. it completely bypassed the "opening state" and wouldn't do anything. so we switched to a timer based code, which was effective although sketchy.
- the front brush gearbox literally fell apart. we superglued it back together.
- discovered one set of chain was absurdly loose, tightened it by taking off skateboard wheel and removing a link or two.
friday
- everyone else arrived!
- karlin showed up how to use a flat sequence structure to make the brains wait before checking the limit switch again, so the paddle would actually work. but it didn't, really...
- so half an hour before our next match, karlin erin caroline and i decided we HAD to add another limit switch. frantic drilling/soldering/coding/ziptying resulted in our winning that match! it was very exciting.
- we won 4 out of 6 matches! we were ranked 11th at the end of the night.
- chairman's interview went well
i can't remember what else happened...
saturday
- we won one out of our three matches, ranked 15th at the end.
- didn't get chosen for an alliance, but were the second alternate
- had judges in our pit all day, chatting and interviewing
- after alliance picking, we packed everything up and took all the crates out to the car, crated up sadie
-only to have an event volunteer come over to us tell us we had to get the robot out NOW because we were ON DECK. frantic uncrating and bumper attaching resulted, and then we were told, no, you're not on deck, you're just the alternate. so if ANOTHER robot fails, then maybe you'll be on in fifteen minutes. HA. well, i suppose it was a good drill. we now know we can uncrate and be ready to go in five minutes flat!
all in all, it was a great regional. hope everyone else also had a great time.
before atlanta: fix the paddle. yet again.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
saturday at svr!
quick update of the rest of the competition...
we added some sheet metal to the paddle and rewrote code (now with four states) before our last two qualifiers. we lost both matches, but all the parts of sadie did work when they were supposed to! yay!
so it came as a complete surprise to us to be chosen for the 7th seeded alliance by 115 (monte vista) and 1120 (milpitas). i think it's funny that we ALWAYS end up in the seventh alliance - at least four times since my freshman year!
the first match did not go well - at first sadie wouldn't turn on. then when i tried to swap batteries, they wouldn't let me because we hadn't technically called a time out... eventually, the robot eventually turned on but connection kept flickering, and she would randomly stop during the match... it was bad. turned out to be a combination of a bad battery and bad battery lead which we quickly swapped before the next match
...which we also lost, apparently there we continued to have some wireless issues, which we need to test out on thursday of davis (the driver's station still read 12V throughout the match). but in general, we did well in that match. as in, all the parts moved as they were supposed to, anndini's driving was good... we lost, but ah well, even getting chosen was far more than expected!
jimmy will be helping us to make a larger circle for the paddle by davis.
all in all, it was an amazing weekend - while we did not do particularly well if you're looking at rankings/matches, i'm really proud. considering the numbers of mishaps we've had (especially electronics! eek! driver's station AND crio AND analog breakout AND battery problems...), sadie performed remarkably well. hell, we hadn't tested everything together until our first qualifier friday morning!
and we've still got davis and atlanta!
thanks to the huge number of people who arrived to support us! we had quite the green group of supporters.
Friday, March 13, 2009
svr friday
first thing - we won the xerox creativity award! i think i speak for the team when i say that we are delighted and surprised. the xerox creativity award recognizes a particularly innovative or creative mechanism. our pushbrooms, the subjects of many a bad joke, won us this award!
in light of the results of our matches, the award was especially exciting. because the matches didn't go fabulously...
-our first match went well and we won
-second match - the paddle got stuck and the buttons wouldn't work. however, before 3rd match, we added a "merde!" button that overrides limit switch code and just moves the damn globe motor.
-third match - we lost, but the robot itself worked well. the difficult part is getting close enough to a trailer
-i think my match numbers are off, but there was one match where we couldn't deposit any balls because the damn moon rock managed to get itself LODGED ONTO the paddle. so "merde!" button or no, we couldn't get any balls out of the tube.
however, all in all, it was a good day. and we've still got davis and atlanta! the xerox award's a pretty good way to start off :)
tomorrow - we attach sheet metal to the paddle to make the circle larger, and therefore ensure no balls get stuck on the paddle. that's the makeshift solution - larger welded circle planned before davis.
hope to see you tomorrow!
in light of the results of our matches, the award was especially exciting. because the matches didn't go fabulously...
-our first match went well and we won
-second match - the paddle got stuck and the buttons wouldn't work. however, before 3rd match, we added a "merde!" button that overrides limit switch code and just moves the damn globe motor.
-third match - we lost, but the robot itself worked well. the difficult part is getting close enough to a trailer
-i think my match numbers are off, but there was one match where we couldn't deposit any balls because the damn moon rock managed to get itself LODGED ONTO the paddle. so "merde!" button or no, we couldn't get any balls out of the tube.
however, all in all, it was a good day. and we've still got davis and atlanta! the xerox award's a pretty good way to start off :)
tomorrow - we attach sheet metal to the paddle to make the circle larger, and therefore ensure no balls get stuck on the paddle. that's the makeshift solution - larger welded circle planned before davis.
hope to see you tomorrow!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
match schedule!
match # time
FRIDAY
6 10:05 581, 987, 1641 1700,115,192
14 11:01 359,670,1868 841,1280,1700
20 11:43 2135,604,3013 1700,254,3045
25 1:28 2643,649,1516 253,2159,1700
39 3:06 846,1700,8 1120,971,2035
43 3:34 1834,2628,675 2141,1700,668
SATURDAY
55 10:26 2489,1700,1868 114,2813,3022
60 11:01 2473,1700,2367 766,1458,1351
hope to see you there,
sherri
thursday at svr
oof. it's been a long, long day.
but FINALLY at 7:58pm, as we were being kicked out of the pits, we have FUNCTIONAL CODE that incorporates everything!
we never did manage to make it to a practice match. tomorrow will be a very exciting day! i'm confident that it will all pull together, somehow. i'll post the match schedule next.
quick summary of the day
-soldered up limit switch, attached tube, e board, etc
-discovered driver's station ethernet port didn't work, attempted to fix ethernet port, gave up
-got spare parts driver's station - we must return this on saturday.
-coding difficulty ---> lunch
-went through inspection
-reimaged crio, came back to test code and it would not work
-spent literally TWO HOURS with the nice people at the desk trying to figure out why we could no longer download code. it turns out that while they reimaged the crio, the didn't reimage the laptop. heh.
-discovered limit switch was having ISSUES. resoldered. discovered that the true state is the open state of the switch
-programming marathon led to FUNCTIONAL GATE CODE! it's written in three states, stopped, open, and close. button 8 opens the paddle, button 9 closes it. it's not perfect code, but it works for what we want it to, and it actually stops when we hit the limit switch
see you tomorrow! it's sure to be an exciting day.
but FINALLY at 7:58pm, as we were being kicked out of the pits, we have FUNCTIONAL CODE that incorporates everything!
we never did manage to make it to a practice match. tomorrow will be a very exciting day! i'm confident that it will all pull together, somehow. i'll post the match schedule next.
quick summary of the day
-soldered up limit switch, attached tube, e board, etc
-discovered driver's station ethernet port didn't work, attempted to fix ethernet port, gave up
-got spare parts driver's station - we must return this on saturday.
-coding difficulty ---> lunch
-went through inspection
-reimaged crio, came back to test code and it would not work
-spent literally TWO HOURS with the nice people at the desk trying to figure out why we could no longer download code. it turns out that while they reimaged the crio, the didn't reimage the laptop. heh.
-discovered limit switch was having ISSUES. resoldered. discovered that the true state is the open state of the switch
-programming marathon led to FUNCTIONAL GATE CODE! it's written in three states, stopped, open, and close. button 8 opens the paddle, button 9 closes it. it's not perfect code, but it works for what we want it to, and it actually stops when we hit the limit switch
see you tomorrow! it's sure to be an exciting day.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Encoder Operational
So, after I plugged things in the wrong way a couple of times, the encoder works! We scaled it so that it measures degrees. The encoder thinks that 250 is one full revolution, but we wanted it to think that 360 was one revolution, so we told it to scale by 1.44. Karlin explained code writing for the encoder and how we could use it to turn the ball-dumping motor. There is some nice "pseudo-code" on the whiteboard in the programming room. We will plan on meeting in the near future. (ideas for times anybody?)
Jimmy is working on a mount for the encoder. He made the ball stopper larger so that the ball doesn't get stuck on the metal thing (like what happened on ship). I am going to drop off a globe motor to see if the shaft on the back can be extended to make a mount for the encoder.
Also, Nan, Anne, Anna, and Shifrah worked on building a beautiful new cart today. We bought some casters at ACE to mount on an 80-20 a and wood frame.
Just a reminder, If you have any outstanding reimbursements, please e-mail them to Ms. Mourad asap so that you can be reimbursed. Also, remember to turn in your permission slips to Ms. Mourad by tomorrow. These need to be signed by you and a parent. Next week is the Silicon Vally Regional, March 12-14. All team members are expected to attend a MANDATORY TUESDAY meeting next week to discuss the competition, preparation, and what to expect. All team members (unless you have already talked to me) should plan on being at the competition Fridayand Saturday. You will need to fill out an absence form for the classes you will be missing on Friday. Please feel free to invite people to come watch us at SVR. We would love to show more people our team and how fun FIRST is.
Jimmy is working on a mount for the encoder. He made the ball stopper larger so that the ball doesn't get stuck on the metal thing (like what happened on ship). I am going to drop off a globe motor to see if the shaft on the back can be extended to make a mount for the encoder.
Also, Nan, Anne, Anna, and Shifrah worked on building a beautiful new cart today. We bought some casters at ACE to mount on an 80-20 a and wood frame.
Just a reminder, If you have any outstanding reimbursements, please e-mail them to Ms. Mourad asap so that you can be reimbursed. Also, remember to turn in your permission slips to Ms. Mourad by tomorrow. These need to be signed by you and a parent. Next week is the Silicon Vally Regional, March 12-14. All team members are expected to attend a MANDATORY TUESDAY meeting next week to discuss the competition, preparation, and what to expect. All team members (unless you have already talked to me) should plan on being at the competition Fridayand Saturday. You will need to fill out an absence form for the classes you will be missing on Friday. Please feel free to invite people to come watch us at SVR. We would love to show more people our team and how fun FIRST is.
Friday, February 20, 2009
status of cRIO
the new one is on its way and i've boxed up the old one, to be sent back first thing monday morning.
i am not shipping back the breakouts/bumpers/whateverthey'recalled. i tried to call NI today to ask them about what exactly gets shipped with the new one, but couldn't get through to anyone particularly helpful. one woman told me to only ship the base, so that's what i'm doing. i figure worst case scenario, we end up with two sets of breakouts.
i am not shipping back the breakouts/bumpers/whateverthey'recalled. i tried to call NI today to ask them about what exactly gets shipped with the new one, but couldn't get through to anyone particularly helpful. one woman told me to only ship the base, so that's what i'm doing. i figure worst case scenario, we end up with two sets of breakouts.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
and she's OFF!
at 3:00 yesterday afternoon, after some crating difficulties, sadie was packed into her bright green box and loaded up into the fedex box.
CONGRATULATIONS.
maybe it's just because this is my third time through shipping, but it felt so much less stressful this year. even with, yknow, the broken cRIO and everything. we made it, guys! and sadie is beautiful. and when she works, she works gorgeously.
we have three weeks before SVR. and plenty to do before then...
-ida and i will be submitting chairmans & woodie flowers tomorrow
-ida, erin, and i are meeting the packard foundation tomorrow
-posters
-code documentation! i'm not 100% sure how to do this in labview. i guess just like maps and zoomed-in boxes?
-return the cRIO
-pray to god they ship the new one soon. and that the cRIO was the only issue.
-box of spiffy stuff to show judges, like we did last year
-check that the tube/globe motor is all ready to go
-finish up the bill of materials
-SIGNAGE
-autonomous code?
-pack for svr [can we try to pack stuff in 50lb crates already, and then just follow the list for davis/atlanta?]
-bits of pvc wire covers
-letter of rec from seton
-kpcb annual report
can anyone think of anything else we need to do?
this is unrelated, but annie has volunteered to lead the new crate effort for next year. i say we start on that as soon as competitions end.
HUGE thank you to our support team: beth o'malley and marsha abbott, doug for his crazy electrical knowledge and retail therapy tendencies, karlin for just always being there for us, jimmy for his machinist prowess and ability to make a motor mount in one hour flat, brian for helping out with the servo, mr. rockman for being there on ship and making us that delicious chocolate pie, everyone who we begged to open doors for us and did... we've got a long list. THANK YOU. we appreciate it. [and i'm really very sorry if i've forgotten someone at the moment.]
we made it through season, guys! and so much more smoothly. let me/erin know what you're interested in doing on the list of stuff above. i'm sure there's more that i've forgotten, too.
but for now, go sleep.
CONGRATULATIONS.
maybe it's just because this is my third time through shipping, but it felt so much less stressful this year. even with, yknow, the broken cRIO and everything. we made it, guys! and sadie is beautiful. and when she works, she works gorgeously.
we have three weeks before SVR. and plenty to do before then...
-ida and i will be submitting chairmans & woodie flowers tomorrow
-ida, erin, and i are meeting the packard foundation tomorrow
-posters
-code documentation! i'm not 100% sure how to do this in labview. i guess just like maps and zoomed-in boxes?
-return the cRIO
-pray to god they ship the new one soon. and that the cRIO was the only issue.
-box of spiffy stuff to show judges, like we did last year
-check that the tube/globe motor is all ready to go
-finish up the bill of materials
-SIGNAGE
-autonomous code?
-pack for svr [can we try to pack stuff in 50lb crates already, and then just follow the list for davis/atlanta?]
-bits of pvc wire covers
-letter of rec from seton
-kpcb annual report
can anyone think of anything else we need to do?
this is unrelated, but annie has volunteered to lead the new crate effort for next year. i say we start on that as soon as competitions end.
HUGE thank you to our support team: beth o'malley and marsha abbott, doug for his crazy electrical knowledge and retail therapy tendencies, karlin for just always being there for us, jimmy for his machinist prowess and ability to make a motor mount in one hour flat, brian for helping out with the servo, mr. rockman for being there on ship and making us that delicious chocolate pie, everyone who we begged to open doors for us and did... we've got a long list. THANK YOU. we appreciate it. [and i'm really very sorry if i've forgotten someone at the moment.]
we made it through season, guys! and so much more smoothly. let me/erin know what you're interested in doing on the list of stuff above. i'm sure there's more that i've forgotten, too.
but for now, go sleep.
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