1/15/2014 Day 11: Beginning to Finish Next Prototypes for Prototype Robot

Today's building and designing was started a little late due to visiting TFS, Technicians For Sustainability, one of our sponsors.  Although we had somewhat less time, a lot got done today within our subgroups.

Shooter

Today was a day of filing, center-punching, and hole drilling for the shooter team.  As the stencils were already cut out for the four different shapes of gussets (and 8 of each shape), we went ahead and straightened the unmarked gussets, stacked them and made a "little package" out of them, put the stencil on top, and center-punched the top plate to prepare for match drilling (having several pieces stacked, and drilling through each to get them nearly identical to each other).  As we were beginning to do this, one of the mentors suggested only match drilling two at a time.  While this was more precise and took away any risk of the bottom gusset slipping too far, this took a lot more time.  By the end of the day, we were able to finish drilling each of the gussets out (a few shown below), and began punching and drilling holes on the tubing to attach the gussets.  This should be done by either tomorrow or Friday.

Intake

While the shooter team was taking a bit of a while on the gusset plates,the intake subteam continued work on the intake system, getting it all riveted together and adding the holes for the roller.  Other than general fabrication, not much happened for the intake team, as all of the parts were already cut, but the team began figuring out where the pistons for actuating the intake need to go, and the general geometry for reaching out just under the 20" allowance.

Drivetrain

Today was a big day for the drive train, as we could now take out the basic 2 CIM motor (the strongest motor allowed by FRC, maxes out somewhere between 5,500 RPM and 6,000 RPM) gearboxes, and build/replace it with the two 3 CIM motor single-speed gearboxes, adding much more power and speed without having to deal with a two-speed gearbox.  The assembly of these new gearboxes happened today (pictured below is the new gearbox nearly completed).

Catcher

Today the catcher subteam did not work much on the catcher, but dispersed and helped the other subteams, mostly helped the shooter subteam file gussets and center-punch them, and helped with putting the gearboxes together.

Approximate times of working: 4:30 PM - 7:30 PM