tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23190210295270490262012-01-09T20:15:36.753-08:00The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.comBlogger401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-17145991400826950222012-01-09T20:14:00.000-08:002012-01-09T20:15:36.763-08:00

More of the same today. More brainstorming, more prototyping. We started thinking more about collecting balls, learned more about the rules, and kept working on the shooter prototype. Still no footage of that...stay tuned! A lot of ideas were brought up for how to collect balls off the ground and how to convey them to the shooter. Nothing definite, but there were some great and unique ideas

Benjamin Visnesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13319409657206791144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-38368290951940627042012-01-08T16:59:00.000-08:002012-01-08T20:15:16.425-08:00

The build season is off and running! We spent most of yesterday (Kickoff) discussing strategy for this year's game with our partner team, the ERRORs. Nothing was really decided for sure, but we had a great time discussing the rules and intricacies of Rebound Rumble. Out of it we got some great guidelines for the game this year. For one, if there was ever a year to figure out the vision system,

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-82756149178886604162011-08-24T17:44:00.001-07:002011-08-26T07:42:37.234-07:00

Come see the Fighting Calculators at the Minnesota State Fair! We will be competing on Thursday, August 24 and Wednesday, August 31 in the Education Building at 10am, noon, and 2pm.

Aren Siekmeierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18122414298163340587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-8279370252038960072011-03-21T09:25:00.000-07:002011-03-21T09:27:03.154-07:00

Here's a video showing off our robot right before we packed it up on ship day! This is basically how the robot will perform at the North Star regional!

Benjamin Visnesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13319409657206791144noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-24532349482471030342011-03-06T10:33:00.000-08:002011-03-06T10:37:09.339-08:00

(Vimeo, Youtube) Here's some (dramatized) footage of our robot, The Scorpion, in action at the Simley practice event on the Saturday before ship. More to come!

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-20409789742397226242011-02-17T10:29:00.000-08:002011-02-17T10:29:24.403-08:00

Say hello to our 2011 Robot! The last week has been really busy (hence the lack of blog posts), and we've getting a lot done. The drive and tube scoring systems are pretty near finished, we're just waiting on the cylinders to power the gripper. There's a video of us testing the elevator and doing some driving posted at Vimeo and Youtube. Enjoy! The minibot is not so far along, and that is

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-82194313603408364102011-02-16T10:03:00.000-08:002011-02-16T10:22:57.067-08:00

Come support the team on March 22 & 28! Team 3130 - the ERRORS are holding two fundraisers to support both their team and the Fighting Calculators. Fundraiser 1:  - Location: Deleo Bros Pizza in Woodbury, MN  - Time: 5:00 to 7:00 PM on March 22  - RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102661003146198. Fundraiser 2:  - Location: American Burger Emporium in Woodbury, MN  - Time: 5:30 to 7:

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-70121160582957596092011-02-03T21:07:00.000-08:002011-02-09T21:44:49.072-08:00

We drove!!! After all the work we've put into our 'bot so far, it was very satisfying today to see it perform as expected. The strafe module works very well. It proved wise of us to design it to be adjustable, because we had to adjust it immediately after mounting it to get contact with the floor. Right now it is powered with 2 CIMs, which we will swap out with RS775s in CIMulators when they

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-11785593204009951912011-02-02T19:15:00.000-08:002011-02-03T19:07:20.682-08:00

Got lots done in the shop today. We finished the chain tensioners and they seem to work nicely. They are a little different from previous years' implementations, but are definitely an improvement (if they work). The electronics had a little more wiring done, although we're still waiting on motor, elevator, and other component placement to finish that up. Tomorrow, 3130 will have an RJ11 crimp

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-23896990501978012222011-01-31T20:35:00.000-08:002011-02-03T19:06:54.162-08:00

This post is long overdue, and concerns a fundamental aspect of our 2011 design. You probably saw the post with the octagonal frame, and may have fallen a bit in love with it as we did. However, we are sad to say that it has been abandoned in favor of a larger, rectangular frame. The rationale was that while the octagon provided some higher maneuverability and style points, it limited space

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-2617649859101555662011-01-31T20:05:00.000-08:002011-02-03T20:36:25.108-08:00

Things are moving right along! We got the chain to length and the wheels and everything mounted, so we hope to have a video of us driving tomorrow! Unfortunately, the motors and transmissions for our strafe wheel haven't arrived, so it'll only be tank, but we always like the occasional sanity check on our reductions. We have hopefully hit a gold mine for belting for our elevator. A local

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-47293178608390051322011-01-27T05:36:00.000-08:002011-02-03T20:37:46.478-08:00

Drive train: We cut aluminum box tube and made it into a rectangular frame and Paul welded it. We still need to weld elevator elements onto the frame. Once plans for the middle wheel and the elevator are finalized, we will attach the wheels, CIMple boxes, chains and electronics board to the frame. Elevator Plan A: We started creating our version of Team 25's 2007 elevator design. The plan

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-46120951588484788222011-01-22T10:21:00.000-08:002011-01-31T19:44:51.645-08:00

Today we got some aluminum stock for our first round of frame pieces. Here they are cut to size: As soon as we get more of the frame finalized, we will weld it all together and start attaching stuff, maybe as soon as Sunday. Some of you might think it silly, but we take a certain amount of pride in our new-found ability to mass produce to spec, and according to a plan (oh my!). Not the

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-87135747366972043092011-01-18T22:17:00.000-08:002011-01-18T22:20:59.997-08:00

As of tonight, Jan 18th, all our brainstorming and prototyping has led us to this current state of robot affairs: 1. Drive train - Holonomic is good. We like it. We're going with it. The protobot we built is fun to drive! Here's a drive train summary: a. Four 4" "dualie" Omniwheels (ordered last week). b. One pair of wheels (Forward-Reverse) driven by dual-CIM motors through the new CIMple Box

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-80482191774826132272011-01-17T05:50:00.000-08:002011-01-18T10:50:08.730-08:00

We started out by talking about different arm/elevator/lifter methods and have come up with 2 or 3 favorites that we are CADing. We made a spreadsheet of our ideas along with a rough ranking system. Then we had a fundraising meeting. We still need money if we want to go to the Championship and lots of people now have volunteered to ask various companies for money. We are lucky to have the

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-71301627308883205652011-01-17T05:49:00.000-08:002011-01-18T10:40:33.615-08:00

We took the prototype out for a spin and one of the CIMple boxes was being sketchy (as we had noticed on Thursday). Then we noticed that the key was no longer in the gear box..... After finding and inserting it, the prototype ran very nicely. You can find a video at http://qik.com/video/29163485. After seeing how maneuverable the prototype was, the general consensus was to go with the

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-33337675403930341982011-01-13T21:49:00.000-08:002011-01-14T05:48:06.841-08:00

Today we continued work on the prototype robot including the mounting of the tough boxes and the electronics board. We (aka Aren) downloaded coded and at the end of the meeting we were able to drive the bot around (strafing, driving, and pinning). However, one set of motors seemed to be having some issues, but we ran out of time to positively determine what said issues were. We will all try

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-78381779927908410672011-01-13T21:44:00.000-08:002011-01-13T21:46:13.023-08:00

Silly us. We jumped right into gruesome shop details without any introduction. On Saturday January 8th, FIRST revealed the 2011 FRC game to us at the Kickoff. It is called LogoMotion and involved placing inflated tubes on racks to form the FIRST logo and deploying tower-climbing minibots at the end of the match. Here's the 2011 Game Animation: The FIRST website has lots more information.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-45865456418407156922011-01-13T05:34:00.000-08:002011-01-13T21:02:59.070-08:00

Today we continued working on the prototype robot. We took one CIM out of the tough boxes and reassembled them with one CIM. We also assembled the CIMple boxes. The CIMple boxes were mounted to the chassis and the chain is in place. (Side note: The motors are facing outwards instead of inwards like normal people mount them. When we build it for real we will have 2 layers (i.e. top and bottom

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-57570286659206740982011-01-12T10:05:00.000-08:002011-01-12T10:16:34.342-08:00

The team shared our design ideas with the East Ridge team at the beginning of the meeting yesterday. We are in the process of building a working drive prototype, and are working out the details for reductions, motors, etc. We also learned that the robot needs to fit inside a 84 inch cylinder instead of a 60 inch cylinder. This means that we have a few more options for the lifting mechanism and

Aren Siekmeierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18122414298163340587noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-19204256176853922892011-01-11T06:18:00.000-08:002011-01-11T06:20:11.385-08:00

Today the team discussed the two remaining ideas for a drive-train and the tube manipulation device. We decided on a octagonal bot with 4 sets of omni-wheels. Two of the wheels will have slightly more power for driving forward. The gripper has yet to be finalized, but we have determined that using a vacuum on the gripper is not a good option. The arm will be a thin 4 foot long piece of metal

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-50781219001109234832010-06-05T10:45:00.000-07:002010-06-05T10:47:33.385-07:00

Two videos of highlights for the team are now available on Vimeo and YouTube. Go watch them to see in a visually engaging way how our team did this past year! One video is geared more toward the team itself and one is more geared toward sponsors and future team members. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxWNhprFUwI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiwLXR46ZsM

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-24582493456997244622010-05-14T10:05:00.000-07:002010-05-14T10:05:16.047-07:00

The team held a banquet last night to celebrate a good year and to say goodbye to Kevin O'Connor, the founder of the Fighting Calculators and mentor for four years.  The team also watched the Chairman's Award video and a video of highlights from the year, which you can see below. A summary of the year for our team in photos and videos.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-55764028777619482362010-04-23T06:06:00.000-07:002010-04-23T06:06:58.235-07:00

Yesterday evening the three Woodbury FRC teams (the Fighting Calculators, the ERRORs, and Woodbury High School's Stereotropic Prototype) presented at a school board meeting for school district 833.  A spokesperson from each team got up and collaboratively gave a presentation about what FIRST is, the partnership between the three Woodbury teams, and the results of participating in FIRST activities

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-15696952084003325392010-04-10T19:33:00.000-07:002010-04-10T19:34:57.761-07:00

We're meeting again in the shop with the ERRORs tomorrow to uncrate our robots and talk about how the competition went and the lessons we learned. We'll also decide what off-season projects to work on so we can have a head start next year.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-72275529723272744972010-04-03T14:55:00.000-07:002010-04-03T18:36:03.995-07:00

Congratulations to teams 71, 1986, and 2667 for winning the Northstar Regional! It took 4 matches for them to pull it out, but they did, and team 71's lifter sealed the victory for the red alliance. Unfortunately, we did not make it into the finals. We had problems all throughout the competition and were not picked to be an alliance partner in the finals tournament. Keep an eye on the website (

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-76673430848244245052010-03-29T19:03:00.001-07:002010-03-29T19:03:41.799-07:00

We're competing in the North Star Regional this weekend! Come see robots from around the state compete in Breakaway matches at the Mariucci Arena at the U of M. The competition lasts three days, starting on Thursday, April 1, and runs until Saturday, April 3.The agenda for the weekend is:Thursday: Practice matches, where we get to test out our robot on a real Breakaway field and apply final

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-45030380884197028392010-03-25T18:47:00.001-07:002010-03-25T18:47:47.183-07:00

The Fighting Calculators and the ERRORs were interviewed today by a reporter for the Woodbury Bulletin. We're going to have an article in the paper about what we're doing and it will be followed up by an article with photos and more after the competition. Keep an eye out for the article in the next Woodbury Bulletin!

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-18140256790354067482010-03-07T09:20:00.001-08:002010-03-07T19:21:11.129-08:00

In the end we ended up with a total of 37 volunteers. Our shift helped to feed 90 kids for a year, which is 153 boxes for a total of 33,080 meals.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-60697304637666315032010-03-01T20:39:00.001-08:002010-03-01T20:39:32.533-08:00

We made plans for our Chairman's Award presentation, and also the video wehave to make.We worked on building two test rigs - one for the kicker, and one for thedribbler bar. We didn't finish either, but both are close.We also assembled a new electronics board - adding components around ourcRio (which we removed from the robot before shipping). This will allow usto control the kicker & dribbler

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-36487531378362074462010-02-25T12:12:00.000-08:002010-02-25T12:15:34.864-08:00

The robot shipped a while ago, after a hectic night of trying desperately to finish as many things as we could. In its current state, the robot is not able to compete, but since we held back many parts, including the electronics board and kicker, we will still have something to work on over the period of time up until the competition.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-42613937595397569612010-02-22T18:04:00.000-08:002010-02-22T18:04:31.186-08:00

Well, we're currently in serious crunch mode.  We're finalizing everything (and we really mean it this time) since the robot ships tomorrow.  We're fixing our leaky pneumatic system, we put a winch on our lifter to add power, and making other last-minute changes.  We could be here a long time tonight...

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-8535224375778313852010-02-20T15:25:00.000-08:002010-02-20T15:25:02.272-08:00

Attending the mini-regional turned out to be a very good thing, since we learned a lot about how the game this year works.  We were originally planning to have fabric on the top of the robot that would catch balls that were returning to the field (see our "About Breakaway" page for more information), but after seeing that only about two or three goals were scored per alliance per match, we

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-21437944755143981342010-02-20T11:04:00.001-08:002010-02-20T15:20:41.422-08:00

Unfortunately, we were not able to complete the robot last night, and so we are not able to compete in the Eagan Mini-Regional.  We still are going so that we can see what other teams are doing and how the game will work this year.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-90675425040147221932010-02-19T15:46:00.000-08:002010-02-19T15:46:50.578-08:00

We are attending the mini-regional competition at Eagan High School tomorrow, which will be a great way for us  to get some preliminary practice and see what other teams are doing with their robots.  It runs all day, from 10:00 AM until 6:00 PM.  It'll be a busy evening tonight, though, as we finalize everything we can about our robot, like the kicker, lifter, and everything else.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-16376983434080509362010-02-18T16:12:00.000-08:002010-02-18T16:13:22.036-08:00

The new team website is now finally online, and just in time to meet the deadline! Go to robotics.mnmsa.org.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-48238693866879700942010-02-17T15:44:00.001-08:002010-02-17T15:44:47.483-08:00

We have been working on the robot like crazy in preparation for the Eagan Mini Regional coming up this Saturday (take a look at the calendar for more info) and we are making excellent progress.  We plan to do a kicker test later today and we are working on cushioning the electronics board and other features.  Stay tuned to the videos section of our site for when the result goes live!

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-71180166964704685312010-02-17T06:51:00.000-08:002010-02-17T06:51:27.271-08:00

Unfortunately, due to difficulties and general busyness with the robot, the site was not able to be released on February 10th.  It will go live on February 18th, which is tomorrow.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-6639312622408064922010-02-05T08:13:00.001-08:002010-02-05T08:13:44.699-08:00

The new website is going to be published on February 10th! Visit robotics.mnmsa.org to see the new website then.

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319021029527049026.post-54365910811750035802010-01-30T07:54:00.000-08:002010-01-30T07:55:02.907-08:00

The Fighting Calculators' videos are now available online! Just go tovimeo.com/frc2175. More videos coming soon!

The Fighting Calculatorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06967963673416278840noreply@blogger.com0