Bring-Down to Bring-Up

Getting set up for the challenge runs.
And it looks good with the non-legal black bumpers!

One week to go in this season. Ugh, I hate to say it again, but what a weird seasons this has been, still. Simultaneously short (as always), and yet it's also felt so, so long. Now, at the end of week 12, the final video submissions for our at home challenges are due with only 5 working days left.

Like replacing a bent drive axle between elimination matches, this is coming down to the wire.

Break All the Things!

We started attempting our first full system checks with our 2021 challenger. The steps are simple - intake a ball, track the ball through the indexer system, deliver the ball to the shooter, and launch the ball.

We tried doing that.

Stuff broke.

The belt-bone is connected to the... wait, it doesn't seem to be connected...

Finally, mechanical had enough "stuff" on the robot that we were starting to break it. Our software team started to feel better. (Then remembered how much time we had left...)

One of the early issues was high motor draw and a generally "rough" shooter flywheel. Fortunately this had a pretty easy to identify culprit - over-tensioned, uh, tensioners. It is one of those seemingly simple items - tighten until the the belt is tight, right? Well, what is "tight"? For this case, "tight" and "tensioned" were two different settings on the tensioning screw. A quick once-over, and setting the screw to the correct level, and our shooter was singing. Or, jet-engine-ing. It's super loud, and on wind-up, it literally sounds like a jet engine spooling up. 

I actually used the opportunity to propose a new name: Jet-Eye. Which quickly got turned to Jed-Eye, because, Star Wars. Neither are still the official name. Apparently we still have plenty of time to name it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, mechanical stuff that broke - the indexer munched itself. As this system is mechanically connected (same as last year), if one bearing decides to remove itself, the belt on that shaft starts to come off, and that cascades to the next belt, and so on... As you can probably guess, one of the bearings did indeed work its way out of it's mounting hole, and the whole indexer system became a mess of floppy belts and off-kilter axles.

Those were the major incidents I documented anyway. I have no doubt a few other small things crept up. On the plus side, once things got more and more together, the accuracy and precision of the shooter were looking good.

Third ball still a little low, but not so bad!

Hit the Target

"Light-ish-Red"-Eye bring up was a process. The process found a slight (and amusing) issue. When running DeadEye's shooter, we found a min-max range for flywheel speed for a decent spread of shooting distances. DeadEye does not have a kicker wheel, unlike our new creation. When first attempting actual shots at the target with "Rose-Colored"-Eye, we used the minimum speed we determined from DeadEye. At that speed, we shot every ball significantly high and over the target, even from the furthest range of 25 feet. Whoops.

Well, it's a good field-goal shooter!

With a bit of tuning, once again we got the jet engine singing. And holy cow this shooter... DeadEye was pretty accurate. With Jet-Eye (one day I promise to have a consistent name!) we can shoot with the same precision, at a more rapid pace. DeadEye's indexer ran close to 50% speed. Jed-Eye runs closer to 75%. (The gearing and motor power is similar enough between the two.)

With the major mechanical issues out of the way, and the general software bring-up complete, our submission was now entirely in the capable hands of our software autonomous programming, LimeLight programming, and our driver's hand-eye coordination. We weren't going to get world class scores in all 5 challenges, so we set higher bars in 3 specific challenges.

Five days more for this season to unfold.... (Plus, you know, innovation challenge and game design challenge. Those are still things!)

Random Musing of the Week

Setting goals is important. I think I've mentioned this before.

Goals are your measurable targets - used to keep you on the right track during the season, used to measure the success of your season after the fact, and then some. For us at the moment, a number of teams have posted their skills challenge numbers. We have an overall goal to win our group, so as we see new scores posted, beating them becomes new mini-goals. (There's a whole separate talk on 'by how much do we want to beat these scores', but I'm not sure I feel like writing that all out. Ok, well, basically when we see teams posting new scores, there's often some information on relative speed to top speed, or constraints from the mechanical/software system, etc. There was also some very strong fudge factor - let's try to go half a second faster and we should be good. Very scientific.)

I personally love goals. For most white-collar careers, annual goals are definitely a thing, sometimes tied to compensation and promotions. Once I really started understanding how to form goals and track goals at work, I actually started setting annual personal goals - set up a new garden, install a new floor in the dining room, build a better mousetrap, etc. I actually didn't realize it at the time, but I had started using personal goals well before physically writing them down. I didn't stumble across a home purchase - there were some years of saving. I had to weigh other financial decisions against my goal - should I buy a new computer? Does my current computer still work? Will a new computer help get me into a house? If I buy a new computer for "reasons", do I have to adjust my timeline for when I think I can buy a house? This computer is really shiny... 

Two hardest steps are probably Setting the Goal, and Sticking to it.
A good goal will be worth it though!

I'm also a firm believer in making goals visible. Constant awareness and helps me maintain tracking, which helps me achieve all my goals. I mentioned above that I physically write my personal goals down - I do! I have a piece of paper that's stuck to my fridge. Every morning when I go to make breakfast, subconsciously or not, I see my goals. (Also, I have replaced the dining room floor. Looks super nice!)

Outside my annual goals, I also do have long term goals. I'd love to retire early. I'd love to build my next house. I'd love to travel to new places. Honestly, these goals will hopefully keep life interesting!

I've had Aston Martin's as my desktop background forever...
What do you think - Goal? Aspiration? Pipe-dream?

There's a quote (attributed to Unknown Author. This person has quoted many things!) - The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan.

Go set some goals for yourself.

-B