2/2/2014 Day 29: Beginning of Week 5 and Crunch Time

Today was the official alarm bell for most teams, as it signaled 2/3 of the season gone, and the fast approach of the final stretch.  Still, not much has been happening in terms of the design of any parts, but the latch should be beginning soon.

Shooter

Today we finished mounting all of the shooter stuff to the robot (bolting in the catapult and putting in the winch), and it was time to figure out how the latch stuff should be mounted, both the piston and the latch itself.  While the shape still needed to be further thought through, we just need to figure out what to use and where to put things.  As we had a single-action piston (a piston that is spring loaded, so it will go one way when air is pumped into it, but not return), and plenty of surgical tubing, we felt that was probably the best actuator to use, as the surgical tubing would allow for the latch to easily return to a closed position, and the piston would easily allow for hitting the latch to open it briefly.
While we easily decided on doing it this way, we did have reasonable amount of debate involving the positioning of the piston.  Originally, most wanted it to be placed vertically, but then it would be sticking out and made the thought of a designing a simple latch a little more difficult, since the latch would be oriented in the same way as the piston, but actuated in a different direction, perpendicular to the orientation of both the latch and the piston.  Also, a random piston sticking out would appear visually unappealing.  From this, we decided mounting the piston parallel and beneath the catapult would be the best idea.  This would allow for a simple latch shape, as well as easy mounting, as it would only require three pieces on angle.

Intake

Today we went ahead and added the pneumatics to the intake/robot frame, so we could actuate the intake and move it from inside the drive base to outside the drive base.  That was about it for the intake stuff.

Drive Base

Today just consisted of adding the pneumatics from the intake onto the robot frame, and, other than that, nothing much happened with the drive base.  Most likely, once the latch hinge and piston mount is confirmed upon, pieces of angle will be added to the frame.

Approximate times of working: 12 PM - 6 PM