Dropshot Reveal

Team 254 proudly presents our 2016 entry into the FIRST Robotics Competition: Dropshot. Dropshot will be competing at the Central Valley Regional this weekend, followed by the Silicon Valley Regional and the last single FIRST Championship. More information on the robot.

Bellarmine VEX Tournament

The 7th Annual Bellarmine VEX Tournament, hosted by Team 254, will be held November 21-22, 2014 project management web app. The event is free for spectators. The best time to watch is from the alliance selection process (3pm Saturday), through the finals, which will finish by 6:30pm.

Information

• Changes from Last Year
• Schedule
• Tournament Location & Parking
• Northern California VRC Championship Qualifications
• Concessions
• Information for Competitors
• Information for Novices

Changes from Last Year

• There are more teams competing, so if you can, please get inspected on Friday evening (6 – 8pm). We’ll officially open the pits at 7am and start inspections at 7:15am on Saturday.
• We will have a photo booth setup with a backdrop for professional looking photos of your robot and/or team. This will be located next to the skills challenge field on the 2nd floor of the Sobrato building.
• We will have a competition Instagram: Use #BELLVEX in Instagram during the tournament and see your picture appear on displays in the Pits and in Sobrato.

Schedule

Tournament Location & Parking

Bellarmine College Preparatory 960 W. Hedding St. San Jose, CA 95126

Google Maps

Campus Map

For the competition, the pits are in Liccardo cafeteria and the competition fields in Sobrato theater. These are #6 and #7 on the campus map at: //www.bcp.org/about-us/our-campus/index.aspx.

Street parking is very limited due to permit parking restrictions. There is additional parking by Emory and Stockton streets. Check in with the Pit Admin when you arrive, who will provide you with a map of the tournament facilities.

Northern California VRC Championship Qualifications

We are qualifying 8 teams for the Northern California VRC State Championship:

• 3 Team Winning Alliance
• 3 Team Finalists
• 1 Design Award winner
• 1 Excellence Award winner

Awards Given

• Excellence Award
• Design Award
• Judges Award
• Sportsmanship Award

Concessions

We will offer pizza for preorder. Info will be sent in a different email. We will have a few pasta dinners available for Friday night and will be offering snacks and drinks on Saturday.

Information For Competitors

• If you cannot arrive before close of check-in at 8am, please call or text (preferred): 408-377-5330 or email: [email protected].
• If you want to be considered for the Excellence or Design awards, you will need to sign up for an interview by 9:30am. Go to the Pit Admin to schedule (or change your appointment time if needed). The interview rooms are on the second floor of the Sobrato Theater building near the swimming pool.
• The skills challenge field is also on the 2nd floor of the Sobrato theater building. Teams are not limited to the number of attempts, however, any team with fewer than 3 attempts can move ahead of other teams waiting in line.
• Bring your signed VEX competition waiver, available at: //www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2013/06/vrc-participant-release-form.pdf.
• Check the match schedule when it is published and make sure you are ready for each match. We try hard to keep matches running on time.
• Be sure your robot is ready for inspection. Double check the requirements here: //www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2013/06/inspection-checklist-vrc.pdf.
• Have fully charged batteries for each match.
• Be sure the drivers and coach have safety glasses when they arrive at the field to compete.
• Bring a power strip. We should have an outlet within 6′ of your table for you to plug into.
• WiFi will be available in the pits
• A Help Desk will be available with a limited supply of parts should anything break or you are unable to pass inspection

Information For Novices

It is highly recommended for you to arrive Friday to go through the inspection and try a couple practice matches. Friday will be much more relaxed and our inspectors will be able to help you through the inspection process. Also, our field managers will be able to guide you through the competition process. Be sure to bring fully charged batteries, chargers, spare parts and tools in case anything breaks. Ensure your VEXnet keys are working well.

2014 World Champions!

{“data”:[{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Overview”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”Team 254 just returned from the 2014 FRC World Championship held in St. Louis. The team went undefeated in the qualification rounds of the Curie Division and paired with teams 469, 2848, and 74 for elimination matches. After a hard fight through the elimination rounds, the team was crowned the champions of the 2014 FRC season after winning the Einstein finals.\n”}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Great Food!”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”The team had some awesome meals while in St. Louis. On Wednesday night the team had BBQ from Pappy’s Smokehouse, on Thursday 254 ate with Team 1114: Simbotics, and on Friday and Saturday the team enjoyed local St. Louis eateries. \n”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/88540781-image-294×300.jpeg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/88540781-image.jpeg”},”text”:”BBQ from Pappy’s Smokehouse was a team favorite”}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Great Fun!”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/8fd7079c-ej_pit-169×300.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/8fd7079c-ej_pit.jpg”},”text”:”Team 1538: The Holy Cows pranked our pits on Friday morning with a ridiculous poster of Holy EJ.”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/97f807e6-ej_volunteers-225×300.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/97f807e6-ej_volunteers.jpg”},”text”:”EJ also greeted all of FIRST Friday morning.”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/97f807e0-Qx1h7xS-400×225.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/97f807e0-Qx1h7xS.jpg”},”text”:”On Friday morning Teams 254, 1538, and 16 played against Teams 111, 67, and 103 in a Hall of Fame match that the Weather Channel recorded to promote the FIRST Championship. Team 254’s alliance won with a score of 616 to 441 in this 4 minute long match.”}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Curie Qualification Matches\n”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning, 254 competed in the Curie division qualification matches \\(the other divisions being Archimedes, Galileo, and Newton\\) and held a match record of 10\\-0, seeding first among the 100 teams in the Curie division, 400 in the Championship, and about 3000 current FRC teams in the world.\n”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/8ff807b3-14041347241_f8c696ec80_o-400×266.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/8ff807b3-14041347241_f8c696ec80_o.jpg”},”text”:”The drive team consisted of Operator Christopher Sides, Driver Christian Jimenez, Human Player Brandon Wui (not pictured), and Coach Travis Covington. “}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Alliance Selection\n”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”After a night of intense strategy talks on Friday, 254 made its alliance selections on Saturday after the last qualification matches. For its first pick, 254 chose Team 469: Las Guerrillas from Michigan. The team was excited to get to work with such a strong, compatible, and versatile alliance partner, who could play hard defense and strong midfield during the tele\\-operated period. In addition, it successfully played the role of autonomous goalie, a rarity in the competition field. 254’s alliance strategy talks the previous night had operated on the goal of creating an alliance for winning Einstein, the \”Final Four\” competition among the division champions, as opposed to winning just the division. As a result, teams were ranked and chosen by virtue of their versatility, since the winning Einstein alliance generally proved the most unpredictable. 254’s second pick was Team 2848: The All\\-Sparks, from a fellow Jesuit school in Texas, for inbounding and defense on powerful opponent finishers. Finally, 254 chose its fourth and backup alliance member, Team 74: Team Chaos from Michigan, to be switched out with 2848 for defense and inbounding.\n”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/907e07be-14045108755_cc33b045e0_o-400×266.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/907e07be-14045108755_cc33b045e0_o.jpg”},”text”:”254 and the rest of the number one alliance after the Curie division alliance selections”}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Curie Elimination Matches\n”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”In the Curie division elimination matches, 254 faced stiff competition and was said to have had the most difficult elimination bracket. The alliance had a tough quarterfinal match against a surprisingly powerful offensive 8th alliance, comprised of Teams 624, 987, and 3476, who had already played a nearly unstoppable strategy together in Qualification Match 26, which saw a score of 320 \\- matching 254’s high score. 254’s alliance won the quarterfinals in two matches and faced an even tougher semifinal round against a defensive alliance of Teams 118 \\(another NASA House Team\\), 359, and 4334, and lost a very close and hotly contested first match. 254 eked out victory in the next two matches and advanced to division finals. 254 won in two matches and became division champions for the first time since its 2011 World Championship victory. The team also won its first ever Innovation in Control Award for its creation and open sourcing of Cheesy Vision, the hot goal detection system used during autonomous by an estimated 50% of teams at the Championship.\n”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/97a607e2-14065098983_07bb930042_o-400×266.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/97a607e2-14065098983_07bb930042_o.jpg”},”text”:”254 used the 3 ball autonomous during Eliminations and had 469 use their goalie pole.”}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Einstein Eliminations and Finals\n”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”Having won the Curie division, the alliance went on to the Einstein field. The scouting and strategy team particularly feared the Newton division champions Team 1114: Simbotics \\(254’s rival in blue banners, friends from the Waterloo regional, 2008 World Champions, and the 2012 Championship Chairman’s winner\\), Team 1678: The Citrus Circuits \\(the finalist team from 254’s home event, the Silicon Valley Regional and with back to back Einstein appearances\\), Team 1640: Sab\\-BOT\\-age \\(division champions from previous years\\), and Team 5136: The Mechapirates \\(one of our favorite rookie teams from the Central Valley Regional\\).\n\n254 first faced the Archimedes Champions 1477, 2590, and 1625 in the Einstein semifinals and won in two exciting matches, scoring 320\\-235 and 261\\-245. The Curie alliance went on to face the formidable Newton alliance in the finals. Undaunted by the supposed \”Curie Curse,\” the fact that the Curie Division winners have never won the World Championships, the Curie alliance won its first match 361\\-236, celebrating madly as 254’s 3\\-ball hot goal autonomous scoring bypassed 1114’s attempts to block it by driving a rarely seen autonomous path that drove 254 out to the wall to shoot over the low goal to prevent goalie interference. In the second autonomous match, 1114 pushed Barrage, and 254 hit only one of three autonomous balls. The match was lost from the outset and was scored 240\\-153 for the Newton alliance. The crowd immediately attributed this sudden unlucky loss to the Curie curse, and the various song\\-and\\-dance numbers thrown in by FIRST did little to raise the spirits of the shocked supporters of the Curie Champions. In an intense third and final match, 254’s autonomous was successful thanks to 469’s foregoing the use of its goalie pole and instead blocking 1114’s movement. Some observers compared the Einstein finals autonomous battle to that of two chess grandmasters. In teleoperated mode, the two alliances went back and forth, but the Curie alliance’s incredible defense on the opposing finisher 1114 picked up momentum and resulted in a close 280\\-250 victory when 254 scored a last\\-second shot under heavy defense. The crowd exploded in cheers as 254 became World Champions for the second time in four years and simultaneously broke the Curie curse. Cheers included \”Curse goes Poof\” and the ever\\-popular \”Yeah buddy!\”\n”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/8874077c-14021429666_b73fb091e9_o-400×266.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/8874077c-14021429666_b73fb091e9_o.jpg”},”text”:”254 used the infamous 3 ball autonomous even against 1114’s goalie pole”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/984307f0-14041809891_325a5f4c2f_o-400×266.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/984307f0-14041809891_325a5f4c2f_o.jpg”},”text”:”The Team’s excitement after the final match”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/981d07eb-14041843352_7bb1826c2a_o-200×300.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/981d07eb-14041843352_7bb1826c2a_o.jpg”},”text”:”EJ’s roar after winning was heard throughout the stadium”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/902f07b2-IMG_20140426_190225-400×300.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/902f07b2-IMG_20140426_190225.jpg”},”text”:”Travis’ selfie with the team”}},{“type”:”image”,”data”:{“file”:{“url”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/98d807f0-10001099_655852797819277_7487597249566466903_o-400×266.jpg”,”full”:”//media.team254.com/2014/04/98d807f0-10001099_655852797819277_7487597249566466903_o.jpg”},”text”:”The Team on the field after the awards ceremony”}},{“type”:”heading”,”data”:{“text”:”Thank you!”}},{“type”:”text”,”data”:{“text”:”Team 254 would like to congratulate its alliance partners 469, 2848, and 74 for their invaluable contributions to the Championship victory and Teams 1114, 1678, and 1640 for the most intense matches that 254 had ever played. 254 also welcomes Team 27: RUSH into the Hall of Fame.\n”}}]}

Team 254 Presents: Barrage

Team 254, NASA Ames Robotics “The Cheesy Poofs”, proudly presents our 2014 robot: Barrage.

Barrage will compete at the Central Valley Regional, Waterloo Regional, Silicon Valley Regional, and FIRST Championship.

Team 254 is sponsored by NASA Ames Research Center, Lockheed Martin, The Mercadante Family, Ooyala, TR Manufacturing, Qualcomm, HP, West Coast Products, The Magarelli Family, The Yun Family, Google, Modern Machine, The Gebhart Family, Aditazz, Cisco Meraki, Vivid-Hosting, Nvidia, BAE Systems, Gilbert Spray Coat, Pacific Coast Metal, S&S Welding, Good Plastics, Team Whyachi, Applied Welding, World Metal Finishing, The Jimenez Family, Hy-Tech Plating, and Bellarmine College Preparatory.

Shockwave Wins the Abbott Invention Hall of Fame Award

Shockwave, a promotional t-shirt shooting robot, was awarded the Abbott Invention Hall of Fame Award at the 2011 FIRST Silicon Valley Regional.

T-Shirt Cannon Publicity

The T-Shirt Cannon at Your Event

Team 254 is willing and able to bring our T-Shirt cannon to many events, including but not limited to:

• Sporting Events
• Spirit Rallies
• Community Events

The T-Shirt Cannon can be branded to meet the promotional requirements of any sponsor.

To Request to have the T-Shirt Cannon appear at your event, please contact our PR Director, Godwin Vincent.

FRC World Championships

Thursday: Day 1

On Thursday, students were up bright and early, leaving for the Dome at 5:00. Students waited in line for the event center to open up, as getting to the stands first is very important for scouting. Students ran to the seats in the Archimedes division. They sat next to Team 987, The High Rollers, who we won the San Diego regional with. Practice matches continued throughout the day, and the Cheesy Poofs played one, which they won. Their first match was qualification match 16, which they lost 162-170. Part of the intake polycarb got stuck in carpet, and dangled below the 30 point level. If it hadn’t, Team 254 would have won 172-170, but the day goes on! Team 254 then went on to qualification match 24, which the they won 190-58, ironing out the kinks from the first match. They went on to match 34, and unfortunately lost 107-115.

After the matches concluded, the students walked to Joe-Bucks, a phenomenal BBQ joint near the hotel. There, they met Team 233’s mentor Mike D, who helped liven up the night. The students walked back to the hotel, where they relaxed in their rooms and went to bed early, as the next day they’d have to wake up early again.

Friday: Day 2

The students woke up around 4:30 and went off to wait for the stadium to open up. In line, they hung out with Team 233, Team 987, and a couple others. They got the same seats as the day before, right next to 987. The first match was another qualification one (#63). Team 254 won with 152 points compared to the 87 the opponents scored. Team 254 didn’t manage to cling to the 30 point level, but they still won. The next match was 79, which the teams won 164-77. The Cheesy Poofs hung at the 10 point level, as their teammates hung at the 30 point level. Match 91 followed, and resulted in another win, 172-152. Team 254 pulled off another 30 point hang this match. The final match of the day was match 102, which the team miraculously won 179-69. This match, one of The Cheesy Poof’s alliance partners didn’t function, so the Poofs won a 2v3 match. After the matches, the students made a quick trip home to change, and went out with Team 233, the Pink Team to a Chinese restaurant. There, they also met up with Team 1515 and 1717. The team had an all you can eat buffet, and had a great time.

Saturday: Day 3

Saturday, the Cheesy Poofs got an extra hour of sleep. They waited in line with Team 233 again, playing music and singing together. They got the same seats as before, but didn’t scout, as the decisions were figured out the day before. Team 254 had one qualification match left, which they unfortunately lost 109-157. This resulted in 5 wins and 3 losses, and a final rank of 24th out of 100. Team 254 was picked by Team 2468, and ended up having Team 11 as the final alliance partner. The team won their first Quarter Final match, scoring an all time high of 236-175. They went on to win the next quarter final, 220-206, pushing them forward to semi-finals. They lost their first semifinal 203-222, but spirits remained high. But unfortunately, Team 254 also lost their second semifinal match 216-266 and were eliminated.

The students then went on to the Einstein field to cheer on the winners of each division. They also helped continue the tradition of competitive paper airplane making. Afterwards, they packed up crates in the pit and returned to the hotel.

Sunday: Day 4

In the morning, Mike D. from Team 233 went room to room and woke up the team, singing and chanting students awake. Team members packed up their bags and went to the land prepared for the baseball game. They walked to the Cardinal’s stadium and watched the Cardinal’s vs. Pirates game. Then, Team 254 left for the airport and returned back to sunny San Jose, California.

Qualification Matches

Qualification 16 Loss 170-162

Qualification 24 Win 190-58 Video

Qualification 34 Loss 125-107

Qualification 63 Win 152-87

Qualification 79 Win 164-77

Qualification 91 Win 172-152

Qualification 102 Win 179-69

Qualification 131 Loss 157-109

5-3-0 Record in Qualifying with 18 Qualifying Points, Ranked 23 of 100 Teams

Elimination Matches

Alliance: 254, 11, 2468

Quarterfinal 4-1 Win 236-175 Video

Quarterfinal 4-2 Win 220-206 Video

Semifinal 2-1 Loss 222-203 Video

Semifinal 2-2 Loss 266-216 Video

Eliminated in Semifinal 2-2

Pre-STL Day 9: Step into High Gear

Manufacturing

Students started organizing new parts into their respective bins. Most of these parts will be spares for competition. In addition, a few mentors and students worked on deburring, polishing, and touching up parts which will be sent in for powder coating and anodizing.

Drivetrain

Students contine to fix the drivetrain. A dog gear broke yet again. Students worked on taking apart the drivetrain gearbox to replace it.

Intake

Students made new parts for the intake, including new mount side plates. Additionally, students began assembling the intake support gearbox.

Shooter

Students designed a one way valve in the shooter. This stop, made from a simple piece of bent polycarbonate, will allow the frisbee to leave the shooter in only one direction and prevent it from falling backwards. This stop is a simple mechanism to further eliminate possible jams that have plagued the robot for the better part of the season.

Other

Teams 973 and 846 stopped by to the lab for practing and tuning in preparation for the World Championship next week.

Pre-STL Day 8: Rolling with It

Shooter/Indexer 

Students and mentors worked diligently to replace one of the intake rollers with a BBD. Students also worked to troubleshoot an issue with the new intake hardstop that was causing hang-ups on the intake system.

Manufacturing

Working diligently to manufacture new intake gearbox plates to save weight, students cut stock metal to be milled in the CNC.

Pre-STL Day 4: Engineering Priorities for Time Constraints

Intake

Students worked to carefully repair the intake when it broke this morning. They had to pause momentarily to remove the intake and fix it on the side.

Fixing the Intake

Jonathan Lee debugging the robot

Design

Due to the fact that there are only two weeks remaining before World Championships in St. Louis,  a lot of the team’s new redesign ideas needed to be reconsidered realistically. While the progress of designing a bucket indexer seemed promising for spectacular scoring, it needed to be put on hold so that the team could focus on other important design tasks. In addition, it would require a major redesign or would bring up weight issues easily. The team decided to refine and work out the issues it currently has. The benefits of the major redesigns are not worth their risks, and it will be a much better use of time to work out the small issues the robot currently has.

Currently, the team is using Solidworks to design a new intake gearbox that would not make the motor burn out as quickly as the Banebot motor does now. In addition, the new gearbox will eliminate a VEX planetary from the robot.

Testing the intake Banebot motor

Another important task includes making indexer hard-stop mechanism to prevent frisbees from jamming and stacking inside the indexer. This addition is a major improvement that is a top priority. This hard stop needs to be simple, passive, and reliable. Most likely, the stop will be mounded to the conveyor side plates. The stop itself will be lowered as the indexer mechanism is lowered. As the indexer is raised, so will the hard stop to forbid the frisbee from moving forward.

Driver Practice

Abhi Kumar and Jonathan Lee practiced driving the robot around to improve positioning consistently and prepare for competition scenarios.

Abeek and JLee driving abhsentmindedlee

Pre-STL Day 2: Cleanup and Buckets

Cleanup

Students started today’s build session with a general clean up after dinner, including a full cleanup of the upstairs area and a more specific unpacking.

Buckets

After the cleanup, investigation on the buckets continued, and it was learned that if a bar applies pressure on the bucket in the part nearest to the conveyor, a system is created which prevents upside down frisbees from joining the stack. However, this only works if the first disc is intaked right side up. Furthermore, work was done on a system which gets discs from the human player.

Programming

The programmers worked on a couple of classes which allow for certain buttons to take effect, even when the robot is disabled. These buttons include ones which reset the gyros in the robot and select autonomous code. In addition, there were minor refactorizations of the code.

2013 Silicon Valley Regional

The 2013 Silicon Valley Regional just finished up, and it was a blast. Only losing one match, the Cheesy Poofs really made their presence known. The Cheesy Poofs hung at the 30 point level in almost every match, being one of two teams to do so. The event was incredible. On Saturday, the Poofs sat with 233, the Pink Team. Both teams sang, danced, and cheered all throughout the tournament for each other, creating an atmosphere that was both fun to watch and be a part of. For elimination rounds, the Cheesy Poofs partnered up with 118, the Robonaughts (from Texas), and 1967, the Janksters (From Bellarmine’s sister school, Notre Dame). The alliance didn’t lose a single match, and scored the highest score at SVR, breaking 200 points.

Thursday: Day 1

It started off with students waking up bright and early, arriving at San Jose State University around 5:45 AM. There, they waited in line to get the best seats to help with scouting and viewing. Thursday was purely practice rounds, so all robots didn’t make an appearance. Team 254 spent the beggining portion of the day making updates to the robot, and got in a couple practice matches at the end to ensure it was working properly.

Friday: Day 2

Once again, students woke up early and arrived at 5:45 AM. Friday was purely qualification matches, which meant these were the ones that determined what place you were in for alliance picking. Every one of these matches was scouted diligently by Team 254’s scouting team, and that data was used to help determine which team would make the ideal alliance when coupled with the Cheesy Poofs. Friday had a few quarcks, which were quickly overcome. Besides match two (where a frisbee got jammed in the intake), Team 254 went undefeated. During the awards ceremony, the Cheesy Poofs earned the Engineering Excellence Award, given to teams that demonstrate a robot with high technical proficiency.

Saturday: Day 3

Saturday was more layed back for the students in the morning. They arrived at 7:00 AM, and sat next to Team 233, the Pink Team. The teams cheered on each other, and any other team that was playing. This, coupled with the singing and dancing between each match, resulted in an encredibly enthousiastic environment. Qualification matches continued until lunchtime, and once again the Poofs went undefeated. The Cheesy Poofs placed first place, which meant they could choose their alliance partner first. Team 254 chose Team 118, the Robonaughts (from texas). For their second pick, Team 254 chose Team 1967, the Janksters (from Bellarmine’s sister school, Notre Dame). Together, this alliance went undefeated in quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals.

Updates

Friday, 9:30am – Won the first match of the 2013 SVR with a score of 133 to 9. Thanks 295 & 2489!

Friday, 10:30am – Lost our second match of the day due to a jamming issue with the intake (47-49). However, we pulled off our first ever competition 30 point hang. Should be ready to go for our next match against 118 in an hour or so.

Friday, 11:35am – Just won our third match of the day against our friends the Team 118 Robonauts from NASA Johnson Space Center (112-96)! This match also featured our second ever competition 30 point hang which gave us the edge and helped us win the match. We’re excited to be on the same side of the field as 118 in the next match as we take on our friends on 971.

Friday, 1:35pm – Just put up a high score with our friends from Team 118 (165-144). Both sides broke the previous event high score!

Friday, 3:20pm – Won match 40 with a score of 132-64. Shot a frisbee while hanging and it almost made it in!

Friday, 4:10pm – Won match 55 with a score of 78-43. Had some issues with the hanging mechanism.

Friday, 4:55pm – Another wild match, this time against our friends from Texas, 148. We pulled off the win with a score of 152-110. Our spirits are as high as our robot is hanging.

Friday, 6:30pm – Won the Engineering Excellence Award! That’s it for the day – see you all tomorrow!

Saturday, 9:10am – Won our first match of the day with a score of 162-49. Had some jamming in the conveyor midway through the match but a quick 30 point hang combined with awesome help from 115 & 4159 allowed us to pull of the win. We’re currently ranked #1 and have two matches left before lunch!

Saturday, 11:10am – Won match 87 with a score of 126-76. Had a blast playing with our friends on The Pink Team for the first time since going to Einstein together in 2010.

Saturday, 11:35am – Just won our last qualification match with a score of 119-33. Alliance selections are coming up soon. It’s looking like we’ll be #1 seed! Yeah buddy!

Saturday, 1:00pm – Alliance Selection is over. We’re the captain of the #1 alliance and we’ll be playing with 118 & 1967. The team is real excited to play with our fellow NASA house team and the Janksters from Bellarmine’s sister school. The elimination matches will start soon.

Saturday, 2:10pm – Won both of our quarterfinal matches (and absolutely loving our alliance)! Moving on to the semifinals…

Saturday, 3:20pm – And we won both of our semifinals (and broke 200 points for the first time at this event). Finals, finals, finals!

Saturday, 4:00pm – Finals match 1 resulted in a win for the #1 Alliance! One of our hooks didn’t catch so Overkill only made it to a 20pt hang. Final 2 is coming soon!

Saturday, 4:20pm – Although our robot lost communication partway through the match, our awesome alliance partners managed to hold strong. Silicon Valley Regional Champions! What a way to end our 15th Silicon Valley Regional!

Qualification Matches

Qualification 1 Win 133-9 Video

Qualification 13 Loss 47-49 Video

Qualification 24 Win 112-96 Video

Qualification 31 Win 165-144 Video

Qualification 40 Win 132-64 Video

Qualification 55 Win 78-43 Video

Qualification 61 Win 152-110 Video

Qualification 71 Win 162-49 Video

Qualification 87 Win 126-76 Video

Qualification 92 Win 119-33 Video

Regional Winner

Engineering Excellence Award Winner

9-1-0 Record in Qualifying with 18 Qualifying Points, Ranked 1 of 59 Teams

Elimination Matches

Alliance #1: 254, 118, 1967

Quarterfinal 1-1 Win 174-77 Video

Quarterfinal 1-2 Win 193-85 Video

Semifinal 1-1 Win 206-144 Video

Semifinal 1-2 Win 134-68 Video

Final 1 Win 203-36 Video

Final 2 Win 125-77 Video

Pre-SVR Day 17: Hangin’ by a Thread

Today was an eventful day to say the least. The team worked hard to finish the necessary tasks before SVR including packing, calibrations, and assembly of subsystems for the competition robot. A new hanger was assembled for the comp bot as well.

Programmers

Programmers worked primarily on the hanger today, using gyros on the robot to calibrate the hang and make the autonomous work accordingly. After hours of testing and calibrations the programmers were fine tuning the timing of the hang phases.

Robot

The drive team practiced with the robot today, in order to get ready for SVR and practice getting setup for hanging. However, unfortunately while practicing hanging, the robot dramatically fell off the top of the pyramid and consequently suffered some damage; a belt on one of the hangers broke. Since we do not have enough spare belts we cannot fix the practice bot hangers until after SVR. On another note, the students replaced the banebots wheels on the shooter with a polyurethane wheel to test if it significantly improved results. However, this new wheel did not seem to improve the robot’s shooter. After SVR, the team will look for other options for wheels.

Manufacturing and Assembly

Today students recieved the powder coated hanger and intake parts, and worked on assembly drive gearboxes and hanger mechanisms to bring to SVR and equip on the competition robot. Afterwards, students worked on making polycarb flaps for the loading mechanism on the robot.

Packing for SVR

Students began to pack items needed for competition at SVR including the toolchest, and part bins. The clear part bins were packed intro crates 5, 2, & 3. Additionally, boxes 8 and 4 were consolidated into one, and box 1 was packed with important programming parts and tools. Finally box 7 was packed with small clear boxes of parts.

Lab Closing Time: 3:00 AM

Pre-SVR Day 16: Open Field

Open Field

Today the lab was opened for Teams 4543 (Apollo High School) and Team 971 to use our field for calibration and driver practice, while working on bugs in preperation for SVR (where both robots will be competing).

Driver Practice

Today Driver Abhi Kumar, and Operators Chris Sides and Scotty Cardona all practiced on the field, specifically picking up discs from the area around the pyramid and shooting into the high goal from the pyramid. The robot was about 76% accurate (data taken by scouts). We hope to improve accuracy to over 90% before SVR. One of the main points of improvements are the BaneBot shooter wheels that need replacing.

Nick Mercadante replacing the battery

Chairman’s Award

Today students took many major steps in preparation to present the Chairman’s Award at SVR. One aspect of this work was the development of the the team binder, with students formatting the various pages of the binder. Additionally the presenters (Richard Lin, Alex Powers, and Nagy Hakim) prepared for the judges interview, working on the power point and the question and answer section.

Manufacturing

Students constructed beam sensor mounts for the robot. These beam sensors will be used to determine whether or not a disc has reached the back of the conveyor to be properly indexed.

Andrew Torrance machining shafts

Joshua Vincent cutting sensor mounts

Mani Gnanasivam milling parts

Hanger

Furthermore, the development of the hanger continued, with elevator belts being tensioned, and manufacturing shafts for the belt. Two of the three new hangers are ready to be attached to the competition bot, with the third functioning as a spare to be put on either side; due to this orientability, it will not be fully assembled until it is attached.

Andrew torrance assembling the hanger

 Lab closing time was: very late.

Overkill Teaser

On Wednesday, the team said that if we reached 2540 likes on our Facebook page or 2540 followers on our Twitter Account by April 3rd, a video of the world’s fastest 30 point hang would be released. The threshold was met on the Facebook page just a day later on Thursday the 28th.

This is that video.

Pre-SVR Day 13: Defense

After a quick driver’s practice today, a programming issue occured with the autofire shooting. With the indexer physically jamming as well as the software causing jamming while shooting, practice was stopped and efforts were put towards making sure the robot was fully functional. After the programming and hardware issues were solved, drivers continued practicing.

Intake

Last night, wooden support blocks were added to the practice robot’s intake to help keep the polycarbonate bottom plate pushed to the ground. No other modifications were made to the intake, and in its current state it is working moderately well.

Shooter/Indexer

The new indexer system that feeds one frisbee at a time has eliminated the issue of the indexer not fully engaging over the frisbee, which caused jamming (such as in San Diego). While testing today, frisbees were jamming below the indexer, which students quickly discovered was caused by a loose piston Tightening the piston solved any jamming issues. Continued testing of the shooter proved extremely improved consistency and power while using the new banebot motors.

Slipstream

Slipstream was brought to NASA from its home at the Bellarmine Robotics lab and repaired by students today. After being restored to driving condition and reprogrammed by students, it is up and running and ready to be used to practice defense. Students and mentors will drive Slipstream as a defensive robot while the drive team runs drills with Overkill to give a more realistic situation and challenge them to adapt to a multitude of different scenarios.

Competition Preparation

In preparation for SVR, students populated a list of supplies to buy, as well as continued to organize the current list with new bins that were bought. By separating the different supplies into individual bins the process of pit setup will be streamlined, as well as creating a more organized pit overall.

Pre-SVR Day 12: Regroup and Rethink

After ten minutes of driver practicing, the team still determined that one glaring problem still exists that currently precedes all others: the robot’s intake system inconsistently picks up frisbees. 

Intake

The team technical leaders gathered to decide on a solution for the intake problem.

Issues:

The daunting issue ahead

• Frisbees stack on top of each other inside shooter indexer
• Intake shelf/ramp causes discs to stall
• Whether or not bottom roller should be used

 After a comprehensive discussion about the next step, the team concluded that the next step would be to revert back to the old intake and iterate from there.

​Solution to test:

• Remove frisbee ramp 
• Replace bottom roller​

Shockwave

Further development of the T-shirt cannon, Shockwave, was continued today, led by Richard Lin. The programming team added the indexing code which rotates the barrels for the next shot. Controls are still under maintenance to ensure safe and proper performance during exhibitions. This will require extensive robot testing by mentors before it can be used in public. 

Students developing the controls

Code Testing

A heroic perspective of Shockwave 

Tom is impressed

Pre-SVR Day 9: Edgy Intake

Overkill:

Tests were conducted using a knife-edged polycarbonate sheet added to the bottom of the intake tonight in order to improve the effectiveness of the intake system. New rails have been integrated into the shooter system. The tests are still underway and there have not been any conclusive results yet.

Shockwave:

Due to issues with establishing connection to the robot students replaced the old cortex and troubleshooted faulty wiring. There is still work to be done and students will continue to work to make Shockwave functional again.

Sponsor Invites:

Invitations to the Silicon Valley Regional were sent to almost all of our sponsors tonight.

Pit Lighting:

Pit members worked on creating an easier means to set-up and transport the LED strips used for Pit lighting. Their fragility and difficulty to set up significantly complicates setting up the pit Thursday morning.

San Diego Regional in Progress

Our team has arrived in San Diego in one piece, and is doing great. The pit is set up, we’ve passed inspection, and apparently, the waffles at the hotel are amazing. If you’re looking for quick updates, our team Facebook page is a great place to look, you will be able to find pictures, statuses, and updates on team. Additionally, if you’d like to watch the games live, head over to

//www.justin.tv/frcsd?utm_campaign=live_embed_click&utm_source=www.thebluealliance.com

Here, you’ll be able to watch the livestream of the event, from qualification rounds to finals. It will open up at 8:30 AM PST Friday (March 8th), so be sure not to miss any of the action!

Wish us luck, and go Poofs!