2/9/2014 Day 36: Beginning to Make Stuff for Competition Bot

Today marked the first day of the creation of our competition bot.  Most of the day was taken by cutting out the same wood parts we hadn't cut out yet (mostly extra latches), but the day did consist of a few interesting design tweaks we wanted to implement to possibly better the bot as a whole/make it easier for drivers to drive the robot.

Shooter

Today not really anything happened with the shooter.  While we did mount tennis balls onto the shooter, it was for the intake rather than for the shooter.  Also, we had to replace the winch strap, since it broke/snapped, but that was just doubling the strap.
In addition to changing out the winch strap and redoing that, we went ahead and added a limit switch to the latch area.  This makes it so that winching back can just be pushing a button and letting go, rather than having to hold the button down until it latches.  Overall, this just lets the operator not have to pay as close attention on the shooter, and pay attention to the surroundings and timing the shots.
Below is a picture with a clear view at the catapult setup.

Intake

Today we did the main thing we had to do with the intake, which was make it so we could still pick up the ball, but let it still sit in the shooter.  To do this, we just added tennis balls to the front of the catapult, so that when the ball is being sucked up, it bends the tennis balls back a little, until the ball pops over the tennis balls. Once it pops over the tennis balls, the balls go back to their original position, and keeps the big ball from rolling out.  We went ahead and tested it, and it seemed to work well, although sometimes the ball would not go back after intaking, but would stay back after moving the intake up.  While it did make picking up the ball slower, it did do just fine as a whole, and did everything we needed it to do.

Drive Base

Today we started up the whole bumper frame building process, since we plan on using slip on bumpers to make everything easier.  Pretty much, we just cut out the wood and put it together in the 23"x34" frame (since the pins add a little extra).  Pretty much, for now, the bumpers just look like a wood frame and scattered cut up pool noodles.  Also, we went ahead and cut out a new wood bellypan and spray painted it black, as it will go on the competition robot that we should be getting parts for soon.  The bellypan organization will be one of the big design changes on the robot, since we need to make space to stick the battery in the back.

Approximate times of working: 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM