Freight Frenzy Meeting #26

 Meeting 26

DATE : 1/19/22

Agenda: Tournament Breakdown, Demonstration and FIRST Advocacy Meeting with City Council Members Kim Moore and Noah Miller

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

Notes: We decided to reach out to our local government to advocate for FIRST and to demonstrate the importance of what we have learned. If we host an event in Elkton in the future, we may need to partner with the City Council and at the least, it is important for them to understand the need for STEAM in our schools and community.

We explained the challenge and the engineering we have created to meet that challenge.

Mayor Dan Burke will try to meet with us next week. We also have a meeting scheduled next Tuesday with RHS graduate, local hero and Congressional Candidate Alex Skarlotos. He is very active in the state and can help us spread the word about FIRST Robotics.

Nate is working on individual videos that we can post to our YouTube page and social media.

We were very successful at Autonomous, Driver Strategy and alliance partnerships. Something happened with the arm that caused additional bounce and instability and made us drop a number of blocks. We need to determine the cause and fix the arm. We also should re-engineer the claw so that it fits between the levels better.

We also discussed adding weights to the bottom of the new team element because it is slightly top heavy and tips. We think this will keep it upright better. Ed and Zeke will drill holes and glue in weights.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #25

 Meeting 25

DATE : 1/15/22

Agenda: SOAR Meet 3 at RHS

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

Notes: We showed great improvement and moved up from 12th to 4th ranked team!

Freight Frenzy Meeting #24

 Meeting 24

DATE : 1/13/22

Agenda: Prepare for Meet 3 - Autonomous 

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

Notes: Sean completed the yellow team element and the two can stack. Sean programmed the camera to recognize it and completed the red freight side autonomous and worked on the red carousel side autonomous while showing the coding to Zeka and Nate.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #23

 Meeting 23

DATE : 1/11/22

Agenda: More autonomous, Outreach Plans, Arm improvements, Scrimmage Breakdown

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

Notes: The team discussed with Dan Killeby possible ways to steady the arm with some form of shock absorber. We cant use an actual shock absorber that uses water or oil because those are illegal. Dan suggested that we could use a plastic syringe to help buffer and steady. We will get some syringes to try it. Sean would like confirmation that it would be legal. He is concerned that it might fall under the vacuum ruling. We will register and pose the question to the FTC Forum for ruling.

We have all agreed to request an outreach booth at Umpqua Valley Arts Summerfest this year and request stage time so that we can invite other teams to attend.For presentation, we want a trifold and some individual display boards with photos.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #22 Scrimmage at RHS

 Meeting 22

DATE : 1/8/22

Agenda: Scrimmage at Roseburg high School

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

Notes: The event is being live-streamed so we will be able to go back later and re-watch the competition. This was a great day to run the robot with Alliance partners and not have the stress of a tournament. 3 teams asked Sean to help them with programming issues. He has given them his contact information for further help. RHS teams gave presentations that were helpful and informative and served lunch for everyone. It was a good day!

Freight Frenzy Meeting #21

 Meeting 21

DATE : 1/5/22

Agenda: New Year 1st Meeting, Work on Claw, Test Autonomous, Discuss bent shaft and safety, Plan for Roseburg Scrimmage 1/8/22

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

Notes: We replaced the servo for the claw that had jammed and when we opened it up, we found that it has brass gears inside and broken teeth. We will order a gear replacement set to try fixing it for future use.Also the servo programmer is not working. We have changed batteries and it is still not functioning well. We will order a new one.

We have signed up to attend the Roseburg Scrimmage this coming Saturday. We believe the practice will good for us and hope to learn from their demonstrations.

Nate is working on a reveal video for our robot that we can post to all our social media.

Nate showed a idea of a team #5385 that created a tape measure arm to cap the shipping hub. He would like to construct an arm like this. The team also discussed creating a roller intake for future use.

In discussing our future, the team would like to request funds from the Elkton School Board to purchase a second robot base with electronics to use for prototyping. We will put together a budget and contact the school to request time with the school board.

We have contacted the school about the possibility of an in-person demonstration for the grade school and the high school. We have also contacted the Mayor and City Council Members to arrange a demonstration meeting and advocate for FIRST Robotics in our school and community.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #20

 Meeting 20

DATE : 12/31/21

Agenda: Autonomous

Attendees: Coach Cynde and Sean

Notes: Sean worked on creating autonomous programs. The rest of the team was on Winter Break and unavailable. While working on the the robot, it drove of the table by mistake and crashed to the floor. The claw was broken and the shaft was bent. We checked our parts to find a replacement shaft but the one we had was 1mm bigger than it should have been to fit through the locking hubs and we dont have a grinder to grind it down. We decided to try to straighten the shaft in the vice and were successful. We are concerned that the bend might have occurred before the crash when the arm jammed and caught on the rail below it. The shaft may be weakened by straightening it. We will order a replacement just in case. Sean will reprint the 3D claw arm that broke. The servo is also not working and will need to be replaced.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #19

 Meeting 19

DATE : 12/24/21

Agenda: Autonomous

Attendees: Coach Cynde and Sean

Notes: Sean worked on creating autonomous programs. The rest of the team was on Winter Break and unavailable.

Freight Frenzy Meeting #18

 Meeting 18

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 #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.