Ontario FTC Event @ Woburn CI

Well, it was fun.

FTC Event Inspections

Ontario FTC 2007 Inspection Guidelines were sent to team teacher head people today, and they have been forwarded to all team members. If you didn’t receive it and want it, let me know.

Of concern:
1) Only Vex branded NiCd batteries are allowed. No other batteries are allowed, identical or otherwise. (Uh oh.)
2) Morning inspections may take a while. Do we want to consider the Friday evening inspection? (It’s not like anyone will work on the robot between Friday night and Saturday morning anyway… lol)
3) We need a tether cable. I have been saying this for-ever. What are we going to do? Who’s bringing one? Cyrus is bringing a tether cable tomorrow. Yay!

All members are expected to demonstrate their driving ability to Mr. Fernandes and the team tomorrow or they probably won’t be driving.

Reminder: Three Forms Due Tomorrow!

Hi, team!

This is a reminder that all the forms are due tomorrow:

• Parental Permission for the Transportation of Students
• Informed Consent Agreement
  Field Trip – Single Day
• 2007-08 Consent, Release, Hold Harmless and Authorization to Reproduce Physical Likeness

For the Parental Permission for the Transportation of Students form, check 2a and 2b (“parent volunteer” and “teacher or other YRDSB employee”). The first two forms are required by the school board, and the third is required by FIRST. All three need to be signed or you won’t be allowed to participate.

Other issues:

• Drivers – See post below by William. Drivers must be trained to avoid damaging the robot, as limits are NOT in place to preserve parts and it is likely that merely turning or reversing will tend to destroy the gears in the drive train the way the robot is currently configured.
• Michael on Field Trip – I won’t be at school after 9 AM tomorrow — I have a history field trip.
• PVC Rings – Someone needs to bring the PVC pipe to the tech department during 2nd or 3rd period with the specification sheet and letter that I have written. I forget who, but one of the teachers I spoke to did say that students in his Grade 11 class should be able to cut the one inch rings en masse very quickly without major issue. Bring the stuff and ask around, and hopefully a staff member in the department will know what I am talking about. We need these rings if we plan on doing any serious practice.
• Robot Turning Problems – The robot accelerates VERY slowly and has problems turning. Is it possible to use smaller wheels anymore? Failing that, can we lighten the robot in any way?
• Yearbook Photo – Jonathan wants to take a new one. ‘Nuff said.

Anyone who has any other things to mention, please feel free to comment on the site or something.

Driver Issue

Jonathan Wu — Able to Drive/ Wants to Drive
Duncan Ma — (Assume) Wants to Drive
William Zhao — Don’t Care
Derek Cheung — (Assume) Wants to Drive (Jonathan said “Derek is unfit to drive”)
Cyrus Yau — Don’t Care
Ivan Lam — (Not Sure) Don’t Care
Mark Poon — (Assume) Wants to Drive (Didn’t contribute = No privilege to drive = No experience = Cannot be drive… Sorry =( ) <-partially said by Jonathan
Michael Chang — Able to Drive/ Wants to Drive
Andrey Vul — (Assume) Wants to Drive

Notes: Should there be a “Competition For Driving”, But not enough time.
Give the people who are able to drive; to drive?
Some type of Compromise?- William Zhao
P.s If I have misinterpreted anyone’s opnions tell me or Michael to change it.

REMINDER: Club Meeting, Dec 12th

This is a reminder that there is a MANDATORY meeting tomorrow, December 12th, after school. It will run (hopefully) from 4PM to 6PM. Meet downstairs by the computer department offices, like we do for most after-school meetings. Meeting Goals

• decide on robot/team name (???) (nominated by Michael)
• two new consent forms required by the school board will be distributed. These must be signed and returned ASAP — preferably on Thursday morning. (nominated by Mr. Fernandes)
• finish major work on robot — install top bar on front of ramp and non-slip “hood” for bucket (nominated by Mr. Fernandes)
• bring Engineering Notebook up-to-date (nominated by Jonathan)
• cut a full set of 50 rings (can we do this during the day?) for testing and practice (nominated by Michael)
• update manual program to latest revision, perform stress testing (nominated by Michael)
• develop (and test where possible) autonomous code (nominated by William)
• develop strategy for event (nominated by Michael)
• decorate robot (nominated by William)

Personally, I’ll try to make sure DWITE doesn’t take too much of my time. Since I’m no longer the sole programmer on my DWITE team, I should have time to actually do things this time around. ^_^
(This notice was sent to all members via e-mail.)

REMINDER: Ontario Provincial FTC Championship Next Week

This is a reminder that the Ontario Provincial FTC Championship is next week, on Saturday, December 15, 2007. Fifty different teams from all parts of Ontario will be participating. It will occur at Woburn Collegiate Institute (which happens to have seven (!) teams participating) which is located at:

2222 Ellesmere Road

Scarborough, ON

(Markham Rd and Ellesmere) .

Woburn Collegiate Institute appears to be serviced by the following TTC routes:
38 Highland Creek (TTC Subway connection to Scarborough Centre/McCowan)
95,B York Mills (Passes Ellesmere but does not enter Subway station, TTC Subway connection to York Mills)
133+ Neilson (TTC Subway connection to Scarborough Centre/McCowan)

More information will be published as it becomes available.

• Student Participants, Mentors, etcetras are required to fill out the Consent/Release form as mandated by FIRST.
• VERIFY RIDES FOR DEC 11
• VERIFY PIZZA ORDERS FOR DEC 11
• Verify that it is still okay to borrow the goggles from Mr. Greenwood on Friday.
• Students need to arrange for transportation to and from the event. (Is there anyone willing to give rides to/from the event?)
• Find out the times for the event.
• Update: Figure out why we are missing the agenda and lunch order forms.

Update: “Registration begins at 8:00 am, with opening ceremonies starting at 10:00 am. The closing ceremonies are scheduled to finish at 5:45 pm.” –Provided by Karthik, FRC #1114 Team Mentor

Update 2: Tentative agendas have been sent to everyone. Please let us know if you did not receive a copy. PLEASE INFORM US ABOUT YOUR TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS AND PIZZA ORDERS FOR TOMORROW, DEC 11!!!

Dec 7, 2007

Well, we’re starting to actually make progress on the robot!

Goals:

• Add collar to ramp so it doesn’t fall apart. (COMPLETE)
• Add screws to ramp to pick up rings. (STARTED, INCOMPLETE)
• Find supplier for 8-32 1″ screws. (Yes, but the minimum $25 order is unattractive. Let’s make do.)
• Install bucket on robot (COMPLETE)
• Install ramp on robot (NOT DONE)
• Recharge controller battery (COMPLETE)
• Create backup pushing implement/element (???)

To Do

• Cut metal pieces where appropriate (we’re running out of metal pieces, and we’re WAY over the size limit)
• Install ramp on robot
• Adjust bucket on robot (size regulations, get the lip under the top of the ramp)
• Finish adding screws to tank treads on robot
• Program feature requests
  • runtime setting adjustment, once load settings for jumpers
  • manual control of bucket ramp (set buttons as opposed to hold buttons)
  • runtime limiters on control to avoid ruining gears (cap on accel/decel speed)
• Stress testing

Thanks to Mr. Duff — without his support, these photos never would have been taken.

REMINDER: Club Meeting, Dec 5

Hey team;

This is a reminder that there will be a Robotics Club meeting tomorrow, December 5th, after school. Meet downstairs by the computer department offices, like we do for most after-school meetings.

Meeting Goals

• distribute consent/release forms required by FIRST to participate in the competition (nominated by Michael)
• make travel arrangements to competition at Woburn Collegiate Institute (2222 Ellesmere Road (Markham Rd and Ellesmere) in Toronto) on Saturday December 15th (NOTE:This is one week Saturday!!! — nominated by Michael)
• fill in the engineering notebook, come up with plans/ideas on how to make this less painful next year (nominated by Michael)
• fix ring storage/release system (nuts currently prevent rings from falling smoothly — nominated by Jonathan)
• ensure conveyor belt can pick up rings (add non-slip pad? — nominated by William)
• usability testing of robot program (if robot is working, then test how easy it is to drive, etc.; see if controls can be mapped differently — nominated by Michael)
• complete robot body (nominated by Cyrus)

If for any reason you need the consent/release form now, you can do so by downloading the 2007 FIRST Consent and Release Form (138 KB) and printing it out. Please note that this form must be signed for the competition or you won’t be allowed to participate. Also note that additional forms may or may not be required depending on what travel arrangements we make for the competition.

Here’s hoping for good weather tomorrow. Hope to see you there!
(This notice was sent to all members via e-mail.)

Dec 2-4

Dec 2

Note: School buses were canceled.

Team 2 – Verified program could be downloaded from the new location.

Dec 3

Team 2 – Installed new program into CPU. Michael brought one foot of PVC pipe of a 10 feet length which was purchased over the weekend.

Team 3 – ?

Team 4 -?

Dec 4

Team 2 – Tested the new program with the motors — all appears to be working as expected. Ring-holding mechanism design appears to be nearing finalization. Made minor tweaks to the chassis, began assembly. Suggested the CPU be mounted sideways.

Team 3 – Cut one 1″ ring from the PVC pipe. (more???)

After school: Made plans for tomorrow. Focus will be on the conveyor belt and bucket, as well as FIRST consent/release forms and transportation to the event.

Dec 1

• Updated code for runtime four-wheel/two-wheel drive and 12-mode/23-mode/12-left-mode selection for operator control mode and autonomous mode.
• All times on posts prior to this one had the time set in UTC. This post and posts after this post will read in EST (=UTC -5).