Blogs from our 2020 Season
Season Timeline | Game Reveal | Photos/Videos | CAD
Torpedo
Team 2658’s 2020 robot “Torpedo” was incredible. It is arguably the best robot the team has ever created, won the Quality Award, and placed 5th/58 at the Del Mar Regional. It can also be so much better. So, let’s take a look at it. Conception Let’s begin with with how we came up with the…
The End of Infinite Recharge
On Thursday morning, as we were getting ready to head to the San Diego Regional, we received the news that the regional would be postponed. Within a couple hours we received further news that the entire FRC season is suspended and that both world championships are cancelled. You can read the full announcement here. As…
Post – Del Mar Regional
These last two days (and whatever time we have left tomorrow) we’ve really focused on ironing out the little kinks we have to get right for this next regional. Most of it comes down to our shooting and the software that goes behind it. So far, we’ve been able to change to PID on our…
Del Mar Regional
Friday – March 6 On Friday we were planning on quickly getting inspected, tuning our limelight on the field, and driving all day long in practice matches. As we would normally expect of any robotics team, the plan quickly flew out the window. We spent some time initially drilling out the bushings on the other…
Pre – Del Mar Regional
We entered the Wednesday (March 4th) before competition with high hopes for extensive drive time and few other errors. However, as it always happens, we were able to get very little drive time and instead had various issues to deal with. Most prominent of the issues was our climber. Initially, the soldering connections on the…
March 3rd
Not much to say for today. We re-did our blue bumpers (which were done yesterday) since we put them a little low before. We also added a small strip of carpet after the color wheel so that the driver could practice driving underneath it smoothly. Then, as software was working on autonomous, we got a…
March 2nd
Sorry for not posting for a couple of days. After the full systems check last Wednesday we spent Thursday and Friday giving software some time to work on their necessary tasks. On Thursday, we were able to attach the bottom limit switch for the tube adjustment mechanism and get it to work. This means that…
February 26th
Lots was finished yesterday and today. We continued our “pit stop” yesterday and were able to fully complete the tube and get most of the electrical (except for a few connections) ready. All that was left to be done for today during fourth period (we’ve been working during fourth period at school since a good…
February 24th
Yesterday I deliberately didn’t write a blog because there wasn’t much to talk about. Things are overall going according to plan with one small exception: software. So far they have gotten around 7 hours (on Saturday and Sunday) to work on autonomous and our options right do not include pathweaver. Despite this, we hope that…
February 22nd
We started off the day with some testing. We rewired the climber so that the motors now get 40 amps and that seemed to do the trick. We were able to quickly climb on both the top and bottom hooks and it looks like the climb should be good. After we finished testing that we…
February 21st
Sorry for not writing the last couple of days. There hasn’t been much in terms of measurable progress because we have been doing a lot of testing and driving and we did not meet on Wednesday. Anyway, the entire climber mechanism was prepared on Tuesday (February 18th), while at the same time a new shaft…
February 17th
Lots of testing, some problems, lots of good things. We spent the first third of the day today mechanically getting things up to date. The hook stopper for the balls on the end of the tube was moved back. Yesterday we had the problem that the front-most ball was getting burned because the pulleys were…
February 16th
We finally got something to work! Most of today was devoted to testing software and the various functions of the robot. After the firmware was updated for the motor controllers (which took a good amount of time), we were able to use the joystick controls to troubleshoot various electrical and mechanical problems. We first started…
February 15th
Some hiccups, some progress, but things are looking good. The tube adjustment mechanism was securely attached today (it was almost on yesterday) and most of on-robot time was spent with electrical. We had a shortage of crimps and therefore some soldering had to be done (which took a while). Slight side note: We had crimps.…
February 14th
We’re almost done. Today we were able to finally finish up the assembly of the tube and intake as well as get started on some part of the climber (in addition to what is already done). The tube adjustment mechanism was put together and then threaded through the nut on the tube. This will allow…
February 13th
Over the past couple of days we’ve continued working on finishing up climber pieces as well as completing, testing, and attaching the tube and intake onto the chassis. We were able to get the shooter and intake plates for the tube attached on Tuesday and some of the wheels and motors that go along with…
February 8th
So much happened today. We started the day with the primary goal of attaching the intake and tube onto the robot and wiring the robot. Some parts still needed to be made for the tube adjustment mechanism and several parts tapped and/or turned (done on the lathe) for the tube and intake. We started off…
February 7th
Every day we’re getting closer and closer to that mid-deadline of completed tube and intake assembly. Today we were fortunate enough to get to stay until 5 and because of that a lot of progress was complete. Build-wise we were able to complete the other tube side beam and start drilling and tapping holes for…
February 6th
Every day the robot seems to slowly come together bit by bit. At this point we have about 58% of the robot parts completed. We finished one beam for the tube and should be able to finish the second tube tomorrow. We hope to get plates (out of lexan so we can test out variables)…
February 5th
Now we have a lot to talk about today. The drivetrain was completed on Monday (February 3rd) and it worked out flawlessly. We easily got it assembled with the brackets on top and drilled out holes on the bottom of the baseplate to use for rivet attachment. The gearboxes, chain, and wheels work together as…
February 1st
Over the past couple of days we’ve been finishing up drivetrain parts and working on a couple of other parts. We also sent out large orders to a couple new sponsors and waterjet as well. We should hopefully get those parts towards the middle of end of this week. In house, however, we were able…
January 30th
We had a good amount of progress over the last two days. I also forgot to mention a few things in my 10-day recap post from the 28th, so I’ll put those down at the bottom. Build continued to work on pieces and were able to complete four more. We now have seven pieces completed…
January 28th
Apologies for the very long time gap between posts. I’ll try as much as possible to capture all the progress since the 17th in this post. Design was able to continue working on the various sub-systems throughout all of last week and, since Sunday night, are now done with the design of the robot. A…
January 17th
Hello team, Finals week just finished and we should be able to ramp up productivity on some missed deadlines (most notably finishing the field elements and working on autonomous). However, this past week was not void of progress. Design-wise, a considerable amount of progress was made on the elevator. The primary structure is in place…
January 14th
Hello team, Although most of the team is out for finals week, there are just a few notable updates concerning our progress. In design, a couple of small additions were made including a holder mechanism on the end of the tube (so that the balls don’t automatically get shot) as well as a battery holder…
January 11th
Hello team, Over the last two days more notable progress was made as the first week of the build season came to an end. Build continued to construct the field pieces and are remarkably close to being finished. Today the shield generator piece was completed with the exception of six small pieces. Other than those…
January 9th
Hello team, Over the last two days more progress was made that puts our team right on schedule. Yesterday (Wednesday, January 8th) we had our general meeting and an extended period of time after school during which to work on various elements. The new Falcon 500 motor that we pre-ordered arrived and Software started working…
January 7th
Blog, Kickoff, and Progress Hello team, We’re starting this blog in order to be able to update you guys on season progress and show you what we’re working on. This should help us be a little bit more organized so that we can have a successful robotics season. Kickoff was on Saturday, January 4th and…
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