Day 1: Let the games begin

Power Up is finally here

Game Manual

Field Tour Videos

If you want to see how many of our Teaser guess we got right check out our other post here.

Kickoff Event

Day 1 starts with heading over to our kickoff event, this year hosted by our friends in Katy, TX they have 5 FRC teams building at their STEM center and they invited the rest of the area teams there to watch the kickoff and pick up our kit of parts. 

After we get our KoP its back to Strake Jesuit to read all of the game rules and start talking about strategy. 

Game Analysis

Quick Max score math

Auto: 15 Seconds

• 15 crossing line
• 28 for switch (2 + 2*13 secs)
• 26 for scale (2+ 2*12 secs, opponent scoring cubes could stop this)

Telop: 135 second telop

125 * 2 = 250 (125secs * 2 for the scale and switch points)

10 * 2 * 2 = 40 (scale and switch Boost Bonus)

Vault points

9 * 5 = 45

End Game

30 * 3 = 90

Total

15 + 28 + 26 + 250 + 40 + 45 + 90 = 494 =500 (give or take 4-20 points)

Functional Requirements

Talked through some functional requirements, these aren't set in stone and will likely change through out the week.

Drive Train

• Drive around field 
• Go over speed bumps 1" dome. at weid angles 
• Go the ramp to the platform at weird platform 
• Maneuver in tight spaces 
• Quick sprint distances 
• Possible Brakes? 
• Tank Drive 

Elevator

• Ground to 8ft speed? 
• Able to asssit with climb 
• only 2 moving stages
• Camera mount on the elevator 

Intake

• Grab cubes in any orientation. (3 different ways) 
• Grab over bumper 
• securally hold the game piece 
• Deposite into exchange 
• Integrate with elevator 
• Touch it, own it 
• robust can take a hit

Eject Cubes

Options

• Shoot cubes
• Gentley place cubes
• Firmly place cubes
• Auto place cube

Climber

• Climb with another robot
• Climb quickly sub 5 secs
• Holds it self up after match
• Get the bumpers above 12"
• Easy alignment for the driver

Tomorrow

We'll finish building our Scale so we can test how the game pieces interact with each other as you place them. We also have a few bench tests we want to build for testing ideas for climbers.

- Spectrum

"Luck is not something that happens by chance. Luck is earned through dedication, work and determination." -Katie Mickley

Power Up Teaser Guesses Recap

The 2018 FRC Game FIRST Power Up started this morning with the release of the game animation and rules.

Spectrum watched the 2018 FRC teaser back in September and guessed what was going to be in this game. Tonight we are going to start the season off with how well we did on our predictions. Commentary is in italics. 

What did we get right?

Elevation Changes
Got this about half right, robots are going up.

• Power UP - makes it pretty obvious that robots will have to climb something,
• that may be stairs like the student walks down in the beginning of the clip or it could be ramps that robots have to drive up.
• There are stairs/ramps in the poster and on top of the arcade machine

Power Ups = changes or bonuses mid match
Hit this one pretty much on the head.

• Bonus points
• Get certain items or score in a certain order and then there are multipliers. Similar to ubertubes in 2011
• Unlock certain parts of the game or objectives after scoring or completing objectives

Misc

We got this one right.

• Human players score the game pieces on the side of the field similar to pilots placing gears this year.

Just for Fun

Dean Kamen was wearing a DK tie in the kickoff video, we are taking this one as a win.

• Human players dressed as Donkey Kong

What did we get wrong?

Elevation Changes
Didn't end up being any big elevation chages for the robots, no large ramps on the field but we did see some platforms moving just not for the robots.

• Multi-Tiered playing field, multiple ramps
• Mario Kart - Battle - Block Fort
• Parking garage
• More obscure level changes
• Ladders?
• Moving Platforms
• Up / down
• Sliding (Similar to 1999 Puck)
• Tilting

Power Ups = changes or bonuses mid match
No audience selection or different power ups each match but teams do get to choose how and when to use them.

• Possibly get to choose which power ups to use each match
• Audience selection of power ups?

Coins
No Coins at all in this game, guess it was just a red hearing.

• Collecting them as a game piece
• Discs/Frisbees/Disc Golf Discs
• If you turn in coins your human players can put out different game pieces based on the amount of coins.
• Possibly scoring in coin slots
• Tiny coins (like 1in or less)
• Large coins (2 ft or bigger diameter)
• Coin dispensers on the field, so you have to pull something, push a block, hit something, to release more coins (hoppers?)
• 500 = Coin Amount on the field?
• (Searches for “500” in google did not return any relevant results)

FIRST Logo on poles (similar to logo motion)
Nope it wasn't part of the game

• Possible Mario Flag Pole
• Possibly hanging logos like 2011
• Maybe have to get logo pieces off the poles instead of putting them on
• 4 out of 5 games on the machine were pick and place games
• 2005, 2007, 2011, 2017 (not 2016)

Misc
Nope nothing as cool as these ideas.

• Size changes?

• The power ups may allow your robots to expand to a taller or larger size.
• Inflatable robots (unlikely but cool)
• Video Game Mechanics

• A lot of things are possible with video mechanics.
• Mystery boxes
• Co-op elements
• Intra alliance co-op elements were it takes multiple robots on an alliance to do something
• Inter alliance co-op similar to 2012/2015 (hopefully not)
• Barrel Jumping/Ladder Climbing

Just for Fun
Didn't expect to get any of these right, 1 out of 5 isn't bad.

• DDR pads / NES Power Glove
• CHUCK TOWN
• Charleston, South Carolina

• Fire Alarm = Lava Game

Conclusions

Overall we got more wrong than we did right, but there was a lot in this teaser to think about and did lead to some very accurate conclusions.

- Spectrum

Driver Station Upgrade

Before

After

Our old driverstation was unsatisfactory for a wide variety of reasons but we decided to hold over a few features that we liked a lot such as the handle style and size.

Problems with old:

• Velcro controller straps are easily lost, ugly, and worked poorly
• Shelf mounting velcro was a strip of adhesive backed velcro that ran across the entire bottom and attached to the sides of the driver station
• Driverstation never had a consistent location at competitions
• Laptop charger cable had to be routed out of a hole on top of the driver station instead off to the side

Fixes/Improvements:

• Velcro controller straps are now nylon and have a plastic buckle
• 2 Wooden blocks underneath have velcro pads for driverstation shelf mounting
• Slots are cut on the sides so it can be attached to the robot cart handle
• Power cable hole on the side of the driverstation so the entire laptop charger cable route can be hidden underneath
• There are now 10 programmable LED pushbuttons on the driver station controlled by a TI launchpad
• Driverstation corners are now welded and seamless
• USB hub is now a triangular pyramid
• Front and back of the driverstation has a purple acrylic backing to highlight decorative cutouts
• Underglow
• The side cutouts are highlighted by a carbon fiber backing
• Laptop power cable can be stowed away by being attached to the USB hub

Critiques

• Pushbutton maintenance is doable but should have been a higher priority when being designed
• Should use a teensy board instead of a launchpad next time for space and easier wiring
• 3D printed wiring enclosures are a little too weak for the velcro
• Handles hang the driverstation low so putting it on the cart handle and field shelf is a little annoying for shorter people
• Retrofitting a camera pole to the driverstation would be difficult
• No solution for controller wires tending to twist and crimp
• Controllers still slip out of buckles

Click here for more details and documentation.
Click here for grabcad files.

- Spectrum

"Few ideas work on the first try. Iteration is key to innovation." - Sebastian Thrun

What's in the Box? - Spacers & Washers

This bin is used for bolt spacers and washers.

We order our bolt spacers normally #10 and 1/4" IDs with 1/2" OD.
https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/123/3291/=1azhniw
We have 1/8", 1/4", 1/2" and 1" spacers.

We order most of our washers from zoro.com
This also has some wave spring washers for taking up slack on shafts and replacing them in VPs. We order them from McMaster mostly.

- Spectrum

Subscribe to Spectrum updates and other FRC blogs in Slack

You can add a slack integration that posts blog updates in your Slack channels. https://slack.com/apps/A0F81R7U7-rss

Here are some good examples of blogs to add to your slack.

• Spectrum 3847 Blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Spectrum3847Blog
• FRC Offical Blog: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog-rss
• John V-Neun's new blog about 148's desgin: https://johnvneun.com/blog?format=RSS
• The Blue Alliance Blog: https://blog.thebluealliance.com/feed/
• Robozone Podcast: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:249285108/sounds.rss
• Elm City Robo Squad FRC#558 Blog: http://robosquad558.weebly.com/3/feed

- Spectrum 

Driver Station Stop Processes Scripts

Here are two scripts we wrote to enable and disable several of the window's processes on your driver station computer when you are connected to the robot. This will turn off windows firewall, defender, update and superfetch. This should make your CPU more stable and allow for less packet loss. Read the "Read Me" file for how to install and use the scripts.

Spectrum Disable Processes Script

- Spectrum

Spectrum 2018 Resource Collection

We have released several new resources this fall and also updated some of our old resources. We collected them here so they are easier to find.

1. Spectrum Robot Design Sheet - DesignSheet.spectrum3847.org
• Designed to be a centralized resource to use while designing FRC robots. Each page includes part specifications and calculations that you can use to help in the design process. 
• Many of the COTS parts common to FRC robots have their size and other design parameters included here so you don't have to open up the part in CAD to measure or find and download the drawings every time you need to quickly add something to a sketch or prototype.
• We keep a copy of this sheet for each robot that we build and then add new pages for each module/subsystem on our robot. That way we can keep track of our design decisions, variables, part numbers, etc in one centralized place.
• Features
• Belt, Chain, and Gear C-C calculators.
• Simple drive train, and mechanism calculators.
• Pneumatic cylinder base lengths, clevis, lengths and more.
• Gas spring retracted and extended lengths.
• Sample Module page to document your robot design variables, and decisions.
• Drill sizes, & bolt sizes
• Electronics status light reference
• CD post about the Robot Design Sheet is here
2. Spectrum Design Concepts Slides - Design.spectrum3847.org
• This is an accumulation of information to help design FRC robots from physics and design basics all the way to FRC COTS parts. There are nearly 200 slides that were used to teach FRC design each week during the fall semester of 2017.
• CD Post about these slides is here.
3. Spectrum Solidworks CAD Library - CAD.Spectrum3847.org
• Updated Solidworks CAD Library with new products for the 2018 season from VEXpro, AndyMark, REV Robotics, Arambot, and more.
• Added pneumatic cylinder CAD models provided by Milkenknights Thank you Marcusbernstein for putting that together.
• If there is anything missing from the library please let us know. This is the most complete library that we know of for FRC.
4. Spectrum FRC Mechanisms Library - Mechanisms.Spectrum3847.org
• Photo gallery of 2017 and 2016 robot mechanisms. 
• We will be updating this with 2018 mechanisms and past mechanisms that inspire us during the 2018 season. 
5. FIRST $1000 - 1000.spectrum3847.org
• Our recommendations for the first $1000 you should spend on tools as a brand new FRC team.
6. Spectrum Electrical Guide - Electrical.spectrum3847.org
• A still under construction electrical guide for how Spectrum does our electrical wiring. 
• Some people will find this useful. It will be fully developed through out 2018.
7. What's in the Box? - Blog Posts 
• A look at how we organize some of our parts and tools.
8. Recommended Reading - spectrum3847.org/recommendedreading
• Our favorite resources that help teams become better at FRC.
• These are the items that have taught and inspired us over the years. 
9. Behind the Lines: Social Media Best Practices
• Video - socialmediabtl.spectrum3847.org
• Slides
10. Spectrum JeVois Test Project - github.com/Spectrum3847/SpectrumJeVois
• A simple test project for using the JeVois camera in an FRC Java project.
• CD thread

Bonus Stuff

• The tools you can't get through FRC build season without?
• Favorite robot parts teams should know about
• Electrical Test Board for Prototypes
• Fixing a stuck USB cable in a roboRIO

- Spectrum

“If you have a candle, the light won't glow any dimmer if I light yours off of mine.” - Steven Tyler