A Quiet Place

This machine ran once....
Once... >.>

We're not freaking out! You're freaking out!

We're a little behind. We're working hard, but the devil is always in the details.

We have cut some metal, and we do have a running chassis, but for a lot of the week, this shop has been a quiet place. It's been kinda refreshing... ish...

Details, Details, Details

I feel like other teams blog about this time - the slump. Mentors goofing around for an hour, then scrambling as three students crawl out of the woodwork asking for reviews all at the same time. A lot is actually happening at this time.

Typical scene this week.

* We're building more field elements.
* Software is running tests with cameras and the new chassis.
* Our business and marketing subteams are doing quite literally all the things.
* Mentors are having crucial discussions about why Boomers are the problem. And something about global warming. (I, uh, was busy stuffing avocado toast into my face and not paying attention.)
* Designers are trying to remember the words to the Veggie Tales theme song. ... and CAD-ing.
* Scouting is figuring out this years data collection and transformation process.

Lots of very important tasks happening among all the quiet.

Finished Parts! We have some!

After our systems meeting last week, each of the subteam leads started/continued adding their V2 prototype copies into the master geometry in OnShape. While the loading screen time has increased, the ability for all designers to have their own folders, sketches, and modify the master at the same time is really convenient and will prevent some of our past issues with sync-ing and versioning. The meeting involved much good technical talk - how we will prevent balls from jamming, how the systems will mount onto one another, how they will all be powered - which is all great in theory. In practice, we know the motors, we know the ratios, and we know the overall idea, but the task of packaging, designing mounting plates, axle capture points, and complete power transmission involves a different level of granularity.

Few days later, literally the exact same scene.
Ok, one or two small differences.

Our designers are also constantly checking and being reviewed on additional component criteria: can we physically build this thing? (We do put hardware into the model.) Can we get tools where they need to be for assembly and/or servicing? Are all pieces on the Bill of Materials? (How's your BOM?) Where do electrical and pneumatic lines go? How are pieces going to get manufactured (e.g. - are we going to bottleneck on the router? The mill? Hand-carving?) We also often find some items that simply take more time to fully understand the implementation details. "Just use a pneumatic stopper to hold the balls before they get to the shooter." That can be done in a number of ways, and the first few might interfere with the gearbox, and... yeah. Maybe we have only ourselves to blame - we didn't prototype a pneumatic stopping mechanism!

At a certain time at night (morning?) we get very diligent about testing all aspects of our subsystems.
Does the shooter make a good hat? Aside from not being all-black, it passes our bar.

Do you want some of the gore-y details? Alright fine. Who's got two thumbs and is writing this section without review or approval? <This guy!>

• Shooter - Furthest along (we have parts, duh!). We know where and how it mounts and is powered. With the metal V1 cut, the designer is working on updates to better use camera targeting.
• Indexer - Coming along, actually quite close to CAM-ready. Designer is finishing BOM, finalizing review comments for hardware, our ball-stop mechanism, (Powered by a pneumatic :-D ), and gearing.
• Control Panel - We don't call it that.
• Wheel of Fortune - Also very close to CAM ready. For this subsystem, most of the current work is actually correcting geometry - moving from copies to derived values, so that is plays nicely within the master copy. The structure, actuation, movement, and mounting are all defined and reviewed.
• Climber - Moving right along. Main assembly is complete and reviewed. Currently (like, literally a 30-seconds ago conversation) working on the gearbox(es). Gearbox-i? Gearbox-um? This designer will soon be crawling from the woodwork asking for a review.
• Collector - Main geometry is known, designer is currently working on full power transmission to the rollers, ensuring good center-to-center distances on all the things. This may actually be the last subsystem that gets manufactured.
• LimeLight - In CAD already with a mount! Our software team is so happy! (Well, as happy as software programmers can be. Sincerely, a software programmer.)

Shop dog!! This grants us 2 RP if I remember correctly...

Controls and Operation

We did have our second super important meeting this week. On finishing our overall systems chat, software led this second meeting, identifying all actions, which will be manually controlled, which are automated, and how to map buttons for the manual operations. Our drive team was in attendance, helping make decisions that they believe will lead to comfortable and easy to learn controls. Fortunately, software is rarely ever carved in stone, so if any issues come up during drive practice or competition, we can (hopefully) quickly swap them.

Our driver flies drones in his spare time. A new controller will also help him get the robot flying.

Once we do finish our reviews and get metal cut, we will be in a good place, with most of the software skeletons in place, if not finished.

Is Your Chassis Running?

You better go and catch it!

Does this even need a caption?

We made a rule last year (and didn't follow it) that we kept this year (and are so far following!): don't drive the chassis until is has bumpers! The bumpers are still in progress, but actually may be finished by the end of today (Saturday!). Our software team has found some interesting methods to make sure the swerve drive is doing the right thing though. Not sure they'll be able to effectively use the gyro in this configuration though...

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, Mr Chassis, we expect you to die!"

-B