TigerTronics Blog

The 2009-2010 school year is beginning, and TigerTronics encourages all students with an interest in math, technology, engineering, science, programming, photography, logistics, or anyone who wants a unique, intense and fun challenge, to consider joining TigerTronics, Union-Endicott High School’s FIRST Robotics team.

Go to www.team2053.org/team/joining.html for the most important about what being a TigerTronics member means, and for information on how to join.  Or, keep reading for information about joining for the 2009-2010 school year.

About TigerTronics:

TigerTronics competes each year in the FIRST Robotics Competition.  We are busiest during the six week “build period,” which begins in early January, when we design, build, and test a robot from scratch.  After the build season we also go to one or more competitions (in March), which take about three days each.  Before and after the build season and competitions, we also work on fundraising, developing and testing new ideas (such as improved drive trains and experimenting with new programming ideas), appear at various public demonstrations, and meet to do basic planning.  TigerTronics is expanding its year-round activites, and each year since our first we have done more outside of the build season and competitions than previous years.

More about FIRST:
usfirst.org
usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/default.aspx?id=966

More about TigerTronics:
www.team2053.org
www.team2053.org/About.htm
www.team2053.org/WhatWeDo.htm

Who can join TigerTronics?

To be eligible to join TigerTronics, you must be a student at Union-Endicott High School and must be eligible to join a school club/activity.  To remain in TigerTronics and be eligible to go to competitions, you must remain in good standing with TigerTronics and the high school and maintain a minimum overal average in your classes.  Specifics on the expectations of members of TigerTronics can be found by seeing Mrs. Daugherty in room 425 at the high school.  They will also be posted on TigerTronics’ website.

What can I expect as a member of TigerTronics?

As a member of TigerTronics, expect to work hard and put in a lot of time, especially during the build period.  Also, expect to have a lot of fun and learn a lot.  TigerTronics is unique in that you will be solving real, complex problems and building a real, working robot.  You will be using real tools to work directly with metal, Lexan, motors, computers, and other parts.  You will have to deal with tight deadlines, and budget and supply constraints.  Real, professional engineers and other mentors will also help; however, our robot is completely student designed and built.  And, throughout the build season and during competitions, you’ll have a great time.  We work hard, but we fan fun too, and competitions are exciting and full of energy.

During the build period, members are expected to work several hours each week.  TigerTronics’ most active members put in 20 or more hours each week during the build period.  During this time, we work every day after school, as well as on weekends.  You will be expected to put in a minimum amount of time if you want to go to competitions, however, when you choose to work is largely up to you: if you can’t come to meetings of Tuesdays, that’s okay, just make up the time some other day.  Likewise, if you can only come for an hour or two on weekdays, that’s okay, just put in more time on weekends.  Many of our members participate in activities other than TigerTroncis, even during the build period.  However, remember that TigerTronics does require a significant amount of time, so it is possible that you may not be able to put in the minimum amount of time if you are heavily involved in other activities (especially winter sports).

Also keep in mind, the time you put in with TigerTronics should be productive.  Don’t come during the build season just long enough to get your required number of hours and do very little or nothing during that time.  It helps to have a somewhat flexable schedual to avoid this, since often you may find other people must be present for you to work on a specific task.  Also, it greatly helps to work for several hours at a time: an hour here and an hour there usually isn’t nearly as productive as several hours all at once.  You should also try to be present at the end of meetings at least a couple times a week to help with cleaning up.  This may mean staying at school very late (especially toward the end of the build period).

How do I join TigerTronics?

Ready to join TigerTronics?  Great!  You should see TigerTronics’ advisor, Mrs. Daugherty in room 425 in the high school.  You could also talk to any current TigerTronics members.  However, Mrs. Daugherty will have the most up-to-date information on when and where TigerTronics will have its first meetings.

TigerTronics communicates via word-of-mouth, school announcements, email, and phone calls/texts.  You should be ready to give your email address and phone number to Mrs. Daugherty when you see her about joining.  You should also be sure to check your email regularly once a member of TigerTronics, since important information may be sent there.  You should also respond to these emails when requested or when you feel their is a need to.

Questions you may have about (or before) joining can be directed to any current TigerTronics member, Mrs. Daugherty, or webmaster AT team2053 DOT org

You should also check out www.team2053.org/team/joining.html for more information about joining.

There was a meeting on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 to continue working on our new testbed.  We had an interesting mix of TigerTronics  mix of some current members, a few mentors, and a few 8th graders who will be joining Tigertronics next year present.  Unfortunately, what was discovered is that part of the transmission assembly we will be using never got ordered.  Fortunately, we have the money to order them and will be doing so, so hopefully it will not be too long long until we can begin building the transmissions.

We will be using slightly modified “Nothing but DeWalts” transmissions, which are themselves modified DeWalt XRP drill transmissions.  “Nothing but DeWalts,”an excellent step-by-step guide to making the transmissions, was written Josehp Pavliga of team 647 and Joseph Johnson of team 47.  TigerTronics has used these transmissions before (on Apollo) was was very pleased with them, despite finding it somewhat difficult to interface them with the wheels we used on that robot (once that problem was solved, however, we found the transmissions to be spectacular: tough, light weight, and versatile).  For our testbed, however, we have decided to modify a part of the “Nothing but DeWalts” transmission to allow for easier mounting of the transmission on robots and avoid needing to modify the motor that drives the transmission.  Details of the modification will be posted once the modified part has been made and tested.

On a completely different note, TigerTronics website has also undergone some recent improvements, mostly related to the blog.  The most noticeable difference?  Well, you may have noticed in the past that parts of the blog, such where it displayed number of comments on articles or instructions to post comments, was not in English.  This was because the blog’s look was originally based on the theme “Simpla Siyah TR 1.01B” by Emre Guler, which was not in English, although an excellent theme nonetheless.  Although the theme has been heavily modified by TigerTronics’ webmaster to fit in with the rest of TigerTroncis’ website (and doesn’t resemble “Simpla Siyah” too much anymore), it still retained many of the non-English words of the original theme until now.  As of today, almost all the non-English in the blog has been replaced by English.  Some additional explanations about commenting were also added, to avoid any confusion as to why comments might not show up.  You’ll see them if you decide to post a comment to any blog article.  Updating the theme of TigerTronics’ blog (or more, using “Simpla Siyah” as a base to create a new theme) has been a great learning experience, but since it was a learning experience their may still be some lingering problems.  If you find any (such as the blog not working, non-English in parts of it, or something else), please be sure to alert TigerTronics webmaster.

The votes for TigerTronics’ new co-presidents are in.  After a close race, TigerTronics’ new co-presidents are Luke D and Dan C.  Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all who ran.

You can find out a little bit more about both Luke and Dan on our students page.

At long last, I’ve gotten all the photos taken at the 2009 Chesapeake Regional competition up. This was TigerTronics’ second regional for 2009. This set of photos has slightly new layout… let the webmaster know if you have any problems with it or any comments.

Chesapeake Regional photos:
http://www.team2053.org/images/2009/ChesapeakeRegional/
All photos from 2009:
http://www.team2053.org/images/2009/

Enjoy!

I’ve been working hard to put more about Tritos, our robot for this year, up.  So far, information about the 2009 FIRST game, and an “Interactive Tour” of Tritos (to be improved/expanded eventually, I hope, depending on feedback and time) are up.

Tritos homepage:  http://www.team2053.org/Tritos/

Interactive Tour: http://www.team2053.org/Tritos/tour/

And of course pictures and videos (more added all the time, as long as I keep getting more), are in their usual places.

In other news, the software people on TigerTronics have pretty much decided we won’t be using encoders with Tritos.  We’ve just had too many problems with them, and we feel rate-limiting and speed-capping will be enough to make up for the loss of what the encoders could provide.  Also going into this decision is the fact that there are still software issues with the cRIO regarding encoders, so it’s not always possible to even get an accurate count from them.

Dan said the robot drives suprisingly well, after getting use to it.  It seems that if the driver can compensate for the surface without help of encoders, and the fact that there are bugs with the encoders, there isn’t much point in fiddling with them.

We did keep the electronics back (we didn’t ship them).  The plan is to do a little more software development/debugging (since LabVIEW allows more simulation than was possible in past years) before going to competition.  But, as of now, evern if we don’t, the software is usable.

The first of the 2009 pictures are up on our website. More should follow in the next few days.

To see them right now, go to the “Photos and Media” menu at the top of our home page, or jump right to http://www.team2053.org/images/2009/index.html.

In other news, most of our design setbacks have been overcome, and TigerTronics is busy implementing the latest round of minor changes and improvements into our robot. Our biggest obstacle at the moment is a shortage of square nuts for 20mm T-slot, but compared to other problems our robot’s encountered, this is minor. Things are looking bright.