Freight Frenzy Meeting #17

 Meeting 17

DATE : 12/11/2021

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber, Skyler Firestone

Agenda: League Meet Debrief and Discuss Improvements

Notes: Discussion about the team element and improvement to the design. We would like to make the opening wider so that it is easier to place on the tower. It can also tip over if we’re not careful. We should make it bottom heavy. Ed and the boys created a bottom heavy cylinder for example. The concept was that it would be easier to grab from any angle, but the concern is that it could also slip through the grip of the claw and did not narrow inside to make it balance better on the tower. The weight on the bottom helps to keep it upright. We also discussed reprinting it in yellow so that the camera can read it easily and the red color won’t get confused for the red barcode on the field.

Communication with our alliance is very important but we also need to lead with our strengths and be able to explain those to our alliance.

We determined that the motor for the lift was a little too slow. We looked at our torque and ratio calculations and decided that we could change the motor from 3D rpm to 435 rpm and increase speed while still having the torque strength we need for the worm gear to function well.

The arm wasn’t extending smoothly for some reason so we looked over it carefully and adjusted the bearings. Now it runs much smoother in and out.

We had added encoder wires to the drive motors but the motor attached to port 0 on the Control Hub was not working correctly. We ran tests by changing out the encoder wire, changing motors to other ports, and found that the encoder port 0 on the control hub is not functioning. We emailed Rev about the problem to see if there was a quick fix. They gave us additional tests to try and determined we were correct. Sean connected that motor and encoder in to the Expansion hub and found that he could make it work that way. Our hub is past it’s past it’s warranty period. It can be mailed in for repair for a fee. We decided that we will do this but will wait for after the end of the season.

We discussed possible claw modifications to make it flow easier. A wheel perhaps?

Sean. Is working on programming changes and getting ready to work on better autonomous programs.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #16 SOAR League Meet #2

 Meeting 16

DATE : 12/4/21

Agenda: SOAR League Meet #2

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber, Skyler Firestone

Notes: We kept having an issue with the Driver Hub shutting off or pausing. We need to research this and determine if it is Human error or a problem with the controller itself. Coach and Sean will email Rev to discuss the problem. We also found w

Freight Warehouse rule clarification that the robot must be within the white lines.

There was a great moment when Zeke realized that the other team wasn’t utilizing the warehouse tower, so he quickly placed freight to tip it in our direction.

Our Basic Autonomous Programs were successful!

We need to add a second marker holder.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #15

 Meeting 15

DATE : 12/1/21

Agenda: Driver Practice and pack for SOAR Meet #2

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber, Skyler Firestone

Notes: We tested the basic Autonomous programs that Sean programmed for the red side and spent the meeting driving the robot to prepare. Then we went over the Robot Inspection Sheet and packed up our fear for the next League Meet. 

Freight Frenzy Meeting #14

 Meeting 14

DATE : 11/30/21

Agenda: Move to Kellogg Springs Camp and work on Autonomous

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber, Skyler Firestone

Notes: Mr Humber graciously offered us a conference room at Kellogg Springs Camp for the season so that we can have the field set up and not have to waste meting time setting up and taking down at each session. We could not do that at the High School because of lack of space. We will hae a dedicated room at Kellogg for the Competition season and are very grateful!

Sean worked on creating a basic autonomous program for the red side.

We are missing encoder wires for the motors and need to purchase some.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #13

 Meeting 13

DATE : 11/20/2021

Agenda: Meet with Mentor Bob Smith and learn about Motors, gear ratio, Torque and Lift

3D print our team element.

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber, Skyler Firestone, Mentor Bob Smith and Loren Smith

Notes: We had a great training session with Engineer Bob Smith! Bob helped teach us how to calculate the torque of our motors and select the right motor to use for the arm lift with the worm gear we selected.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #12 SOAR League Meet #1 at UCC

 Meeting 12

DATE :  11/13/2021

Agenda: SOAR Meet #1 at UCC

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber, Skyler Firestone

Notes: We received our team shirts and had a nervous day at our first SOAR league meet! We ended ranked 12th in the League out of 23 teams.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #11

 Meeting 11

DATE : 11/12/2021

Agenda: Drive and pack

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber

Objective: Prepare for SOAR Meet #1

Notes: We met one more afternoon after school to prepare for Meet #1 and to pack.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #10

 Meeting 10

DATE : 11/7/2021

Agenda: Program and Driver practice

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber

Objective: Sean will work on programming to make sure claw and carousel wheel are functioning well.

Zeke will practice driving, and Jessica and Cynde will prepare for meet.

Notes: Programming went well and so did Zeke’s driving. We decided to add one more meeting for driver practice on the 12th and pack that day for the meet.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #9

 Meeting 9

DATE : 11/6/2021

Agenda: Preparing for League Meet 1

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber

Objective: Finish the Claw, Attach Carousel Wheel, Prepare for Competition

Notes: We attached the claw and tested it again and again to make sure we could grab blocks easily. We also attached the carousel wheel by changing it to a bevel gear inside the back wall and raising the wheel to match the carousel.

We also attached the second wall and added team numbers to prepare for the meet.We went over the robot inspection sheet and field inspection sheet to prepare and talked about tournament protocol to prepare.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #8

 Meeting 8

DATE : 10/31/21

Agenda: Happy Halloween Carnival!!

Attendees: Coach Cynde, Coach Grace, Sean Pakros, Jessica Hawkinson, Zeke Humber and Nate Humber

Objective: Community Outreach and Volunteerism by running booths at the Elkton 

Charter School Halloween Carnival.

Notes: In the past, we have attended the Halloween Carnival and demonstrated our robot or run our own booth as a fundraiser. This year, The committee was short handed on help so we decided to volunteer and help raise money for the school music program. We ran 2 booths and had fun with all the kids that came. As a surprise and out of gratitude, the sponsoring organization EEAR, donated the money we made that day to our team! Thank You for supporting Elkton Robotics!!