Friday 11/14

Attendance: Nolan, Kyler, Travis, Gabe

We had a small group today, Chris wasn't feeling well and went home to work on the blog intead, and Ben had too much homework. During the meeting, we finished the ramp (we still need to calibrate it though) and had some good ideas for the robot.


Nolan's comments:
We've found that if we double the servos at the base of the arm, the "dual-stage arm" is no longer neccessary. Instead, we are now planning an arm that has an autobalancing feature, keeping the puck trough level as the arm supporting it moves up and down. This mode would be initiated by a button, and cancelled as soon as the trough control joystick is moved.
We also found that using the tubes for the trough caused the pucks to stick, so we're going to run two pieces of one-by from the old VEX kit across the top of the trough (where the tubes were, though with mores space due to the smaller width of the one-by in comparison) and use it as a mounting point for a polycarbonate trough.


Kyler's comments: I took apart one arm and rebuilt it with a different design. We are putting one-by on the sides of the trough and putting aluminum or polycarbonate for the main part of the trough. Aluminum isgoing to be easier to bend but it will be heavier, and polycarbonate is going lighter but harder to bend and keep in one piece.


Gabe's comments:
Today I drilled holes and screwed the ramp parts together and attached the ramp to the rest of the course.


Travis' comments: today Gabe and me finished the ramp by drilling the holes to connect to the pvc pipe so the ramp will not move around a lot and i drilled all the holes but two gabe drilled the other.

Friday 11/7/08
attendance:
Ben
Christopher
Nolan
Travis
Terry
Kyler
Gabe

Projects:
Information meeting, led by John
Focus on team name
discuss servos and the torque they can handle
design the robot
learn how to program
make the ramp

first agenda
Team name brainstorm

barbaric barbarians
chaotic techmen
awesomeness deluge
trogdor techmen
still alive
robot 911
aperature labs - robot : still alive

decision so far: Still Alive
with 6 votes compared with only two for robot 911


Servos, the problem with the former idea about using the servos solely to support
a buckets system is lacking because of the huge amont of force twisting the servo,
therefore destroying it.
We need to come up with a new idea for getting the pucks on the robot and revaluate
how to use the servos effectively without wasting money replacing it.

Torque calculating results
Torque:weight x distance

Current arm total:210.3 grams.
Arm by self:68.9
61 ounces is the weight of the servo
141.40 is the weight of the total arm minus the arm by it's self.
The arm is 12 inches from pivot point.

Object Weight distance from pivot
arm 68.9g 6"
Load at the end of the arm 141.40g 12"
4 pucks 24 oz 12"

Gabe Law


what is going on in club room.

Tavis is working on the ramp in the senior construction classroom

Nolin, Kyler, and Ben are working on designing a new device for holding the pucks, with Jeff helping.

Terry is working out the torque measurements.

Chris is working on getting the blog in order, as well as watching over the rest of the group and adding opinions
here and there.


Chris' comments:
I think so far everything is going along swell now that we have moved away from disorganized
play. We managed to get a team name decided relatively quickly without too many qualms.
There is still some problems with keeping members working on the projects they have agreed to work
on. Design looks like it is working well.

Kyler's comments:
this is my first time here in robotics. the two-stage arm seemed like a good idea to me.

Terry's comments:
i like nolan's idea but still thing it needs work to improve its efficiency.

Team,

The pucks just arrived. They are orange (I guess you all expected that, right?).

Eight pucks weigh exactly 1 pound, according to my scale.

John