Pine View Engineering Club '09-'10

Fundraising

2009-10-18T00:37:00.003-04:00

Ok. I am going to start posting regular updates here regarding everything from build info, to fundraising info.

Anyway, first topic:
Fundraising.
We need to go into a heavy duty fundraising mode starting next week. Whether it is selling candy at school, making donations to the club, convincing neighbors/family members to make donations or organizing events, we need to really start earning money so that we can actually do something this year. I already have a number of ideas and I am working on making them happen, but everyone needs to contribute and everyone needs to help me with this. My first big idea is a Volleyball Game/Cookout at the beach. If I can work out the details, and we can get 50 people to show up, we could rather easily earn $500+ in a single day. Other ideas involve either car washes at school, some sort of event at a Sam's Club(which will match whatever we earn), concert of some sort, or some sort of tournament. I will be looking into all of these, but I would like everyone else to do their part and start by simply coming up with some ideas.

There are other ways of getting money though. I would encourage everyone to contact friends and family to see if any businesses wish to sponsor the club. I am also going to be looking into the possibility of getting a grant for the club. Brian will probably be selling candy at school, and I would encourage other people to start doing that as well.

Ultimately, my fundraising goal for January is $12,000. I am hoping for more, but I am expecting less.

In line with these lower expectations, I am going to be proposing a rewrite of the club charter, as well as a reorganization of the club in general so as to better facilitate the spending of club funds. I will also be encouraging teams to focus on making Beetle/Ant weight robots. We may still have a 15lb bot that we work on as a club, but I do not believe that we will be able to do any more than a single 15 lb bot. Copperhead will be needing some minor modifications, but nothing extensive will be necessary.

first meeting

2009-08-30T20:58:00.002-04:00

Hey guys,

we're having our first meeting this Tuesday, September 1st. It will be in Mr. Seider's room 6th period. thats the room next to the art room. Please, if you know somebody else who's in the club can you guys check to make sure that they know about the meeting. This meeting is mainly for people who were in the club last year cause there's some organizational stuff that we need to talk about. New people, while you are certainly welcome to come to this meeting I'm recommending that you not come till next tuesday when, hopefully, the club will actually have some sort of plan. As always if you have any questions or concerns come see me.

-Julien

Club Charter V2

2009-05-26T21:29:00.002-04:00

Ok, for anybody who hasn't seen it yet this is the latest version of the charter:

Club Officers

v The Club President oversees club operations and upholds the Club Charter. The President’s decisions can be overruled by a majority vote of Tier 2 members. The President is elected from Tier 2 members by a majority vote of Tier 2 members. The President cannot be reelected except by a unanimous vote by all club members. Member of the Board of Review

v Vice-President acts in the place of the President if the President is not able to fulfill his duties any given week. Acts as the Chief Engineer for the club, helping teams when necessary. Appointed by the president. Chairman of the Board of Review.

v The Event Organizer organizes all events that club members participate in (builds, fundraisers, etc.). The Organizer is in charge of any administrative duties involved with events. The Organizer gets final say at events but can be overruled by the President. The Organizer works with the Treasurer to obtain money and materials needed for events. The Organizer is elected by the entire club and assumes office upon approval by Club President. Member of the Board of Review.

v The Treasurer handles and keeps records of all financial aspects of the club. The Treasurer is responsible for all fundraising efforts. The Treasurer works with the Organizer in keeping track of money and materials involved in events. The Treasurer is elected by the entire club and assumes office upon approval by Club President. Member of the Board of Review

v The Team Captains represent their team and get final say amongst team members but can be overruled by a majority vote. The Captains oversee their team’s activities and are responsible for keeping their team organized. The members of each team choose their Captain pending approval by Club President.

Board of Review

v A minimum of one week prior to any competition, all teams planning to attend must present the Board of Review with: completed Documentation, proof that the robot functions properly, a demonstration of safety procedures, and have an appointed driver. Each team member must demonstrate a basic understanding of the robot’s design, functions, and strategy.

v All decisions made by the Board of review require a majority vote. In the case of a tie, the presenting team is entitled to submit the proper items to the Board again, after which the Chairman will decide for the Board. Should any member of the Board be a member of the submitting team, either the President or a tier 2 member not in the team will fill their place.

Modus Operandi

v The Club will have three tiers of membership. Tier 1 will consist of all club members and the Team Engineers. Tier 2 will consist of the Team Captains, the Event Organizer, the Treasurer and the Vice President. Tier 3 will consist of the Club President, the Parents, and any other adults involved in the Club.

v Tier 3 members will act as mentors and guides and are not allowed to mandate changes in robots.

v Tier 2 members can initiate an impeachment vote of the President, but they must have an elected replacement ready. All club members must participate in the vote.

v Candidates for the positions of Treasurer, Event Organizer, and President must have been club members for one year.

v Persons cannot be excluded from participating without probable cause.

v Only the members of a team that built a robot participating in an event may attend that event with the exception of the President and the Organizer.

v Each team will have a minimum of two members and a maximum of five.

v Each team may only be involved with one incomplete robot at a time. A complete robot is defined as fully functional, possessing an adequate safety device, and has a team member selected to drive the robot.

v In order to start building a robot, a team must have most of its fundraising completed and be granted approval by the Board of Review after submitting a report detailing the robot’s design and estimated cost.

v Teams are required to keep the Board of Review and President up to date with any and all progress on their robot and fundraising efforts.

Presidential Limitations and Qualifications

v The President shall be restricted from creating any team or teams independent of any restrictions set forth in this document. The president may participate in any individual team activities.

v The President must not neglect his or her presidential duties in the participation in any team.

v The President may also perform the duties of either the Treasurer or the Organizer provided that no suitable member is appointed. The president will not be permitted to perform the duties of both positions.

v Should the President perform the duties of Treasurer or Organizer he or she will be restricted from joining a team.

v The candidates for the position of President must have previously been club members for two years or have shown enough merit to warrant a nomination by the former Club President.

v The next year’s President must be elected no later than one month before the end of the current school year in order to give the previous President time to transition out of office.

v The elected President will assume office immediately after the school year has ended. The new Treasurer and Organizer must be elected by this time and the chairman of the board of review must also be appointed by this time.

Financial Policy

v All club finances will be kept in a club account. Each team will be allocated a sum of money equal to the funds raised by this team. Any additional funds requested must be approved by the Board of Review.

v Money and materials that do not belong to any specific team will be available to all teams from the club account on a first come first served basis once the team has obtained the Board’s approval.

v The Treasurer has the right to prevent withdrawal of money from the club account in order to pay any fees, taxes, or other charges attributed to the whole of the engineering club.

v Each team is responsible for paying any fees, taxes, or other charges attributed to their robot and/or team. This includes but is not limited to registration fees, shipping charges and trip expenses.

v Each team must have probable cause in order to withdraw money from the club account.

v Each team will submit a request to the Treasurer to obtain or order any and all parts or materials.

New 15 lb Robot

2009-05-17T22:47:00.004-04:00

I have begun to work on a new 15 lb robot to replace Dethinator. Like Dethinator, it will be a Full Body Spinner, however, it will have angled sides in an effort to better defend against the numerous Vertical Spinners(Drums, Beaters, Blades, etc).

Also, to ensure a greater stability, the robot will be a mere 2.25" tall, and 16" in diameter. Spinning the shell will be two AXi 2826/12 Brushless motors at 14.8V. Shell should spin at around 2000 RPM at top speed, and these brushless motors should have enough torque to get the shell up to speed quickly.

As you know, this year, Dethinator was troubled by the fact that the shell was made out of Aluminum, which led to a weakness in the shell that ultimately contributed to its defeat. To prevent this from happening again, I intend for this new bot to have 3/16" 6-4(Grade 5) Titanium for its shell. This, together with the angled sides of the shell, should result in an incredibly resilient robot that will withstand a lot of punishment, and do a lot of damage.

Also, if the robot has enough weight, I plan on using Neodymium magnets to apply a downforce to reduce the ricochet when we hit another robot.

Here are some screencaps of the model of the shell that I made today:

End of the year

2009-05-12T16:30:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, due to AP Exams and Finals being soon we're pretty much done with meetings for the year. Next year the club is going to be organized into teams of 2-5 people so start thinking about who you want to be in a group with. Each group will be responsible for either upgrading a robot or for designing and building a new robot. Each team will also have to do their own fundraising. More details about what we plan on doing next year should be available soon. If any body has any questions about next year contact either me, Alan or Brian.

post-trip.

2009-04-26T23:45:00.001-04:00

okay. The whole trip ended up much better than it seemed like it was going to.

Dethinator was gonna be in the big 15 lb rumble (we updated the shell after our ring exploded... adding about a pound but no one cared lol) but when we went to test it, the weapon motors didn't work. At all. I then got pissed off and had to cool off a little cause things were just going so badly at that point... but then we heard that there was going to be another rumble so i replaced the motors and they worked and we fought (dethinator vs quasar (built by eddie) and tornado mini (built by senai at UT@arlington) which was fun. we lost horribly because one hit from tornado mini and our shell dented enough to catch a wheel stopping us from both driving and spinning... but it was fun. :]

copperhead got to grudge match this team who had a crappy wedge and wanted to go home with pieces. So we helped. :P The audience loves us and they filmed the entire match. I really wish we had more opportunity to fight... copperhead just DESTROYS things so much better than the vast majority of other bots out there.

Watching the pro bots was really cool, and having the film crew everywhere and getting interviewed and filmed and all was also really cool.

This season wasn't nearly as successful as last year's, but it was still fun. We made some friends, and kicked some bot. Our sightseeing in san francisco has been really enjoyable too. Julien and Brian have high hopes for next year, and I wish them all the best of luck. I probably won't have too many other posts other than to post footage and TV-show schedules, so I thank all the readers and the team. Take care.

Dan Curhan

first competition update (and probably only one)

2009-04-25T11:46:00.002-04:00

both our bots are out. Dethinator lost twice, Copperhead was 1 and 2. I didn't like the judges decision for copperhead's final match. We are putting both back in for rumbles and grudge matches.

we'll see what happens.

documentation

2009-04-20T23:21:00.004-04:00

The documentation is DONE. I scanned all 70 pages of it (that's right. 70 pages) and uploaded it here.

It is also in the links to useful stuff box.

Sorry I couldn't put a direct link to it, it was too big (18 MB) to upload to Google.

documentation for sanfran

2009-04-19T13:33:00.002-04:00

EVERYONE GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO MUST READ THIS.

(http://www.botsiq.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/botsiq-doccheck-for-2009.pdf)

Anyone showing up to the event without their composition will be barred from participating.

Also read the rules. I will not be held responsible for not telling you something if you get in trouble because you didn't actually read this.

(http://www.battlebots.com/downloads/rules/BattleBots_Tournament_Rules.2009.pdf)

I'll be working on documentation all day...

status updates

2009-04-11T10:55:00.005-04:00

Sorry I haven't had much time to write here... I've been up working on the bots every day this break from 9 or 10 in the morning until 12, 1, 2AM... It's been a long week but things are finally coming together.

COPPERHEAD
Copperhead is being assembled for the last time (thank god, cause it takes about 2 hours...). We painted the frame and shaft clamps an extra-flat black. It looks really cool. The drum is also freshly painted a very shiny copper. As we all know, the pretty paint won't be pretty by the end of the competition, but at least we'll look good for photos when we get there. :P
We've been having some issues with very temperamental electronics... We've got a Victor 883 for each drive motor, and a Thor 883 for the weapon. AIL/ELE are mixed with a mixer/booster chip, and we're using a signal driver cable for the weapon. The driver cables are SO BAD! We have three and they work sporadically! I don't get it! I'm contemplating just going all out and dropping $35 on a booster chip and just regular 12 inch cables (since we certainly don't need the 36" ones we have... :P). The other problem we're running into is on one of our motors, I think the back emf from it is interfering with the mixer chip, so the radio signal becomes intermittent when that motor is running - to the point where it loses signal, then doesn't come back until you reset power to the bot. But ONLY the mixer is affected. The weapon never loses signal. It's really odd. I'm trying to contact a friend of ours who lives close by to see if we can borrow an end cap from him that could potentially have good RF-suppression capacitors in it (if ours are bad and that's the problem...). All our testing concluded that the MOTOR was the problem, not any of the electronics. I don't know. Hopefully we'll figure it out. The drum still spins beautifully, and actually maxed out at 3453 RPM when we tested it. A far cry from our purported 4900, but nonetheless impressive. If we do the math... it comes out to a tooth-tip speed of 88 mph. Our weight (when we checked yesterday - it was missing a few small things) was 119.50 lbs.

DETHINATOR
The Dethinator actually works! The spin-up time is impressive, and our final RPM is pretty impressive too, 2200 RPM. Alan is learning how to drive it for San Francisco. We need to come up with a safety device and locking mechanism, so it's not quite as crappy as Miami was. I made a shunt resistor to measure current draw, and we figured out at the beginning of Thursday that the inrush of current (with the shell on) was over 130 A, and it settled around 60-70A to hold max speed. The battery is only rated for a max continuous discharge of 60A, so this explains why it was getting hot. We put the flux rings back on the motors (my bad... :P) and this greatly improved their performance and decreased the temperature that they were running at. We also put air scoops on the top to push air through the holes. This will keep everything much cooler as well and shouldn't have TOO big an impact on our RPM. Hopefully we'll be good to go for San Fran, but we're bringing a bunch of extra motors just in case. Final weight - 14.90 lbs

THE CRATE/SHIPPING
We are almost done building our crate (we just need to make the top piece and then we'll be set to go). We pack it up tomorrow, so any changes we need to make to the bots needs to be done by tomorrow. I need everyone's stuff to ship who is going to San Francisco. I'll call everyone today to figure out when to pick up/when you can bring it to us (the better option!).. We have a slight shipping fiasco however because we were gonna do one thing, somebody promised us a better price, then we cancelled the first thing, then the better price guy realized he was talking to a complete IDIOT at UPS who was quoting him for one-way prices or something like that, so we had to uncancel plan A... it's a mess.

So yeah. That is our status.
More videos to come.

results from miami youth fair

2009-04-03T07:58:00.002-04:00

Sorry this took so long to put up...

Dethinator placed 5th out of about 15 bots, but our team received the outstanding sportsmanship award.

miami youth fair

2009-03-27T09:36:00.002-04:00

Well. Our first big weekend is coming up, but the Dethinator project has been fighting us every step of the way (more on this later). We're almost done, but we need to remake a few MORE parts.

The Miami Youth Fair has driving directions on its website.
Saturday we're planning on leaving from school at 11AM or 12 ish. I don' t know whether we'll be staying with host families or in Nola's house.
Sunday the check-in is at 9AM. The event starts at 1, and runs til 6.
We leave following the close of the competition (should be around 7) and get back not TOO late sunday night.

I will have more details later today.

we have a problemm.

2009-03-19T13:40:00.003-04:00

In our more rigorous testing of the dethinator (involving using bags of empty soda cans as targets - even though the bot still doesn't have teeth) we have come to the conclusion that something needs to be changed. We burnt out a motor. Completely. I don't know how or why, but it started smoking and is totally locked up. This happened at 2:45 ish in our preliminary time test. I'm starting to doubt the robustness of the design, because those little motors seem really wimpy. I think we need to buy bigger motors and use them, like the duratrax 550 motors that eddie is using. At $8.99 each, I think we can afford them. :P We wouldn't have to TOTALLY redo all the wiring, we can still use a lot of the infrastructure we already have in place. We would have to leave two wheels as idlers, with no motor behind them, to support the shell, and then run a belt on pulleys from the motors to the other two, and take two out altogether. This should drop some weight too.

continuation of dethination

2009-03-17T01:39:00.002-04:00

It's 1:30 AM and I just came in from my garage where I was testing and debugging the Dethinator. It works pretty well. I straightened out the drive system (hooray for reading user's manuals!) and I think I fixed my radio connect twitch. Anyways, I didn't make any CHANGES, I just debugged the electronics, and put it together for real and ran it, so we still have the same to-do list.

You can't put the throttle up more than halfway, and I'm still not sure why, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. :/

Anyways, I'll cut to the chase. :P
here's a photo of the insides, and a video of my testing.

you know you're impressed by this massive tangle of wires...

The Dethinator COMES TO LIFE

2009-03-15T13:38:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was a marathon build. Alan and Julien stuck it out and helped a lot, so they were busy doing stuff while I was working on the wiring and assembly. I was wiring for 9 hours. straight. it was painful. and I almost finished. But i didn't have time, so I brought it home and finished it after midnight in my garage. It runs, but has a few small quirks...

1) As soon as the radio connects, one of the drive wheels jerks forward for a fraction of a second, then stops, and everything is normal. I'm using a Spektrum DX-5e, with a Sabertooth 10 Dual ESC and ML-3506 Planetary Gearmotors.

2) The Sabertooth has a built in Aile/Ele mixer and a "flip" channel which I have connected to the Aux channel on the receiver which corresponds to the trainer switch on the transmitter. Default (trainer off) has inverted L/R (right on transmitter = left turn) but when I hold the trainer it's right. No pun intended.

The Dethinator's TO-DO list:

- shorten leads to switch
- mount switch
- make runners for inside of ring/scuff pads
- switch Aile/Ele and motor polarities until it drives the RIGHT way
- Re-bind receiver chip to fix twitch
- Cut shaft to length
- Redo ring
- Attach ring
- Debug
- Make weight
- DETHINATE.

:]

thanks to readers

2009-03-13T23:19:00.004-04:00

I just wanted to throw a thank you out to both Jeff and Senai for not only just finding this site, but also for letting me (and us all) know that they found it. Thanks!

One of the things that I wish we had at our disposal is a forum so that all of us high school, college, and pro battlebots enthusiasts can network and discuss ideas, battlebots, upcoming competitions, etc. We all know from all the competitions that battlebots isn't really as cutthroat as people think it is. What happens in the pits for the most part epitomizes teamwork and sportsmanship, and if we can extend this cooperation and friendship beyond the pits and into our brainstorming sessions, machining sessions, etc., I think it would have an extremely positive effect on the entire battlebots community. So, with that said, to everyone who reads and follows this blog who isn't on the pine view team, THANK YOU and DON'T BE SHY. Make yourselves known, and who knows, maybe together we can incite a social network of battlebots builders accross the country.

Thanks again!

Dan Curhan
President - Pine View Engineering Club
guiswim7391@yahoo.com

_______________________

andddd...

I just felt like rambling on, so I'll continue.

I find it kinda funny that people are forever associated with the bots that they create. For example, when Eddie and I went to see the antweight competition at RobotMarketplace, we saw a kid there who we knew was from Miami - we'd seen him at BotsIQ with the bot Coincedence. The first thing I said to him: "Hey, you're one the Coincidence team, right?" not, "Hey Adam, what's up?" His response was a perfect parallel "Yeah, and you guys are Copperhead, right?" It seems that Eddie and I will forever BE Copperhead. Yes, the bot will be passed down once I graduate, and it will belong to the club, but it will never be truly associated with anyone but Eddie and me by those who saw us win... In other news, the video I did of Copperhead 3's battles in BotsIQ 2008 is on like 20 different sites lol. I googled copperhead botsIQ....

__________________

THERE'S MORE!
I made us a forum. I made everyone a forum. Please! Join! I'll make it pretty in the next couple days - for now, it's kinda stock and boring... but I promise, that will soon change. I want to bring all the battlebots teams everywhere together.

http://battlebots.forumotion.com/index.htm

This is the perfect place for you non-pine view people to actually talk to us... and a better place than here for you pineviewers to discuss your ideas.

Hopefully we can get a nice discussion going with a good amount of members from everywhere. I will talk to Nola, and see what she thinks...

The Dethinator

2009-03-13T12:40:00.003-04:00

Well guys, I guess Rob, Andrew Lum, Andrew Foster, Alan and myself are the only ones going to Miami? NO ONE HAS TOLD ME WHEN THEY ARE GOING! I NEED TO KNOW OR YOU WILL NOT GO. NO EXCEPTIONS. These deadlines are rapidly approaching, and Nola needs to know our plans so that we can make arrangements. If I get no response from you by tuesday, no one except the people who have responded will go. I will not go out of my way to ask you what your plans are. I want all of you to experience the competition first-hand, but I also want you to grow up and start being responsible for yourself. This is not just another "I kinda said I was going... he'll know I'm going" situation. I need a definite answer. ASAP.

I also registered the 15 pounder as THE DETHINATOR for San Francisco.

And as far as the fifteen pounder goes, I owe a huge thank you to Alan and Ben for coming out and helping almost every day I've been working on this thing. It's proving to be a challenge. I think we're going to end up using one of the battlepacks from D.O. instead of the individual cells... it's SOOOO much lighter, and 12V and already assembled... it just makes things easier. And it fits. Lightening this beast is proving to be a disheartening task. It refuses to make weight. The baseplate, 4 motors, drive motors, wheels, hardware, shell, shaft w/ mount, electronics and new steel ring are 13.5 lbs. The battery pack weighs 1.35 lbs, giving us a grand total of 14.85 lbs. The only problem is there is NO CHANCE we can compete with 4 motors. We need six (at least!), and they weigh .55 lbs each, putting us at almost 16 lbs.

I spun (or tried to spin) the shell with the spring loaded runner bearings and four motors, and it would spin for about two seconds and stop. The speed controllers have a maximum current cutoff, and we reached it. Every time. I took the runners out (because they actually have a fair amount of drag), and the shell spun for about 5 seconds, then stopped. Then, I slowly, slowly brought up the throttle, and got the shell to start spinning pretty well, but I backed off because it was precariously screwed onto a 2x8 clamped in the small vice, and was vibrating quite a bit. I still don't know if I can spin the shell with all four runners in or not, so I'll do some more testing on Saturday. Eddie will be coming down Saturday to work on his bot, so if you want to see him, come on out - I just have to let you know that it isn't going to be a machining-fest where everyone is doing stuff all the time. There's not that much left to do, but at the same time, there's a LOT left to do. If you know what I mean... I need to wire the whole thing, and we need to test and lighten and stuff, but there isn't going to be a whole lot for everyone to DO. If you just want to come and watch the process and learn, then that's great. If you're going to be bored and cause trouble, don't bother coming.

metals

2009-03-08T23:27:00.001-04:00

if you want to learn more about the various metals we use, I put a link in the "links to useful stuff" box on the right to a page called "METALS" which talks about the various metals we use.

Please read it. I don't like explaining things that you should already know because I've already written/talked about them. :]

Update on stuff

2009-03-08T10:46:00.002-04:00

Some of you know that I have been at Hydrogel working on the 15 lb bot every tuesday, thursday and saturday for the last 2/3 weeks. It's exhausting but we're making progress. I owe a big thank you to Ben and Alan for coming and helping out.

We are nearing the end, but as always, new challenges have come up. Over 400 holes later, the baseplate is now essentially done. It weighs 1.6 lbs. Both drive wheels are done, the spring-loaded bearings that run along the inside of the shell are done, We made custom 1/8" washers to raise the drive motors up off the baseplate, and that whole assembly is done. All the weapon assemnbly stuff is done. The teeth are done, but may need modification. The only thing left to do is the wiring.... or so we thought.

We took all the parts to the scale and weighed everything. With eight motors and 12 battery cells, we have a bot that weighs 17.2 lbs. We definitely need to do some modification of parts, and there's a chance we may have to run with 6 motors and 10 battery cells... run everything at 12V... I don't know yet, I need to do some more testing of all the electronics.

Eddie came down to watch the antweight competition at Robot MarketPlace, and to see what we've been up to. The antweight competition was kinda fun...

it's a bot!

2009-02-28T23:27:00.003-05:00

Well, folks, we have a bot. Sort of. In one long day (11AM - 10PM), we took a pile of parts, and turned it into a bot. This video kind of chronicles the entire day.

We did the basic machining on the baseplate (we still need to lighten it A LOT and mill slots and holes for the bearing brackets), assembled all the weapon motor assemblies, tested all the electronics, assembled the weapon system, put the shell on and spun it. It spin really nicely, but we have some electrical problems we need to work out...

- the weapon motors are all rated for 7.2 volts, not 12, so after we spun up the shell and then quickly took it off to check everything inside, the motors were all pretty hot. We only spun it for 10 or 15 seconds, so we may need to step down the voltage and use 7.2 V. This will save us weight anyways because one 10 cell 12V pack can't run the bot for three minutes without overheating, so we would need two... and two 7.2 V packs are only six cells each, giving us a lot of extra weight.

- the speed controllers got really really hot and one even melted its plastic shrinkwrap covering. I ran 4 Speed-400 motors per 1 speedmax-40 speed controller (which they suggested for one speed 400 motor)... so this could be the issue. I am going to buy three more (so we have one extra) and use one SC for two motors. I need some PWM Y-splitter cables so that all the motors receive the same throttle signal (I was using two different channels today, the second being the trainer switch on the back of the transmitter...) I also need to reprogram the speed controllers so that they don't brake the motors (as this uses a lot of current and is bad for the motors and can even damage the speed controller when there is a lot of mass spinning the motors).

- We need to buy powerpoles to finish the wiring, and we need to make terminals for all the little motors. We also need 1.2 V rechargeable AA size batteries for the transmitters. Hopefully robot marketplace has them. There is a chance we may need to cut the 8 motors down to six to make weight, but I think they'll be working too hard if we do that, and I really don't feel comfortable with it.

Tuesday I will go to robot marketplace and buy all the stuff we need, then head to hydrogel and get to work. I need to finish the second drive wheel (my dad made the first one... he might just do the second for me). Everything's coming together pretty well. We're going to take the shaft and the stop piece to Rick to get welded on Monday so we'll have that done by Tuesday.

I'm excited. :]

Rick Wilson - our awesome machinst

15 lb status update

2009-02-27T14:44:00.003-05:00

I apologize for how long it's been since I've done a status update on the bots. I've been really busy planning the trip logistics....

Anyways, the shell for the 15 pounder is done. it weighs 4.15 lbs (down from 4.55). We drilled well over a hundred holes in it. The shell itself is slightly concerning because it is really soft. We're gonna go for broke, and if it breaks in miami, then we look for a plan B. The weapon motor assemblies are being difficult. First problem was the bearing supports... The barstock was undersized 3/8" but we didn't know it was so undersized - we drew a "center" line at 3/16" for the two mounting holes and put each piece in the vice with a stop - drilled one hole, took it out, flipped it around, and drilled the second hole. The barstock was actually .362 or somewhere around there so the holes make a diagonal across the part instead of a straight, perpendicular line. This is really bad because these are the supports that hold the bearings parallel with the motor shafts! If these aren't square, the motors will constantly be fighting to spin up. With this problem finally solved by enlarging one of the two countersunk holes in the baseplates, we starting putting the assemblies together, only to find that the tolerances had stacked up so much that things didn't line up. The motor shaft would stub the end of the adapter, and wouldn't go in right. We had to modify each assembly individually to get everything to line up, and even then, we ruined several bearings, and only produced six that spin really well. We got two that were okay, and left two in pieces because we didn't have time last night to perfect them. That's why we're gonna be out there ALL DAY saturday... So if you want to swing by and help, or your parents want to come by and see what we're doing, feel free. It's kind of like an open house type day. One of our wheels is done, it looks really good, and since it's made of 7075 aluminum, it'll be very strong. (This photo is an unfinished wheel blank - sorry I don't have a photo of one finished).

Last week when we weighed everything, the total (without baseplate, fasteners, and electronics) was 18.4 pounds. This is a very intimidating figure because there really isn't much we can lighten, but I think we'll be okay if we use 8 motors instead of 10. We've already dropped almost 2 pounds, so things are looking good. We need to get this thing put together and running ASAP so that we can do the necessary testing to see if there are any changes that need to be made.

As far as Copperhead goes, we cut out the back corners - saving almost a pound. It took a long time, but it looks good. SMT agreed to machine our wheels for us for free, so we sent them the material to use - I just need to finish my solidworks drawing of the wheels (normally I use AutoCAD 2000 so this is an awkward, unfamiliar software for me, so it's taking FOREVER). We also decided to thin out the wheel design. The tires machine fairly well, so we are thinning them out from 1.75" to 1.5" to save some more weight...

I bought a new IMX1 mixer from RobotMarketplace to replace the old one that we burnt out - now everything works as it should. If we can raise enough money, I would like to use either stainless or titanium for armor this year instead of lexan, because there are kill saws in the arena, and we need to survive ANYTHING. This is televised! We are the ones to beat! Copperhead needs to be indestructable.

CHECK DUE

2009-02-21T23:03:00.004-05:00

Okay guys. Here's the deal.

The head of BotsIQ, Nola Garcia, SPECIFICALLY contacted my dad asking whether or not we are bringing Copperhead out to San Francisco. Apparently, a LOT of teams have been asking whether or not we will be competing. We are the team to beat in the 120 lb class. Copperhead is now a high-profile bot, and will go down in Battlebots history. There is a good chance we will see a lot of Copperhead clones in competition, because we proved how successful a drum bot can be.

According to Nola, there should be over 20 15 lb bots in the competition, including another brand new spinner that won Best Engineered bot award at Rumble @ The Rock in MA, and has recently received a lot of attention. The Carrolton school in Miami is building 15 battlebots at the same time, so we will have some competition. There is a chance we will drive down to Miami on Saturday. Nola has offered to let the team stay at her house for free (we said we were bringing around 8 people w/ sleeping bags... ). We will know more in about a week when we get a list of definite attendees for miami. Nola said she would get passes for all our team members so that we can enjoy this Miami Youth Fair in addition to just competing, and this is going to take her some time, so we can't wait too long to give her the list of people.

Now. I just want to give you the rundown on the San Francisco trip. This trip is a big commitment. It's a big undertaking for everyone. It's not something that you do because "oh, i think i might want to do this." Either you really want to be a part of this, or you don't. I apologize if the numbers are really fuzzy. At this point, we are planning a trip, and, as with all trips, the costs involved aren't definite. At this point we know this for sure:

Every PERSON going with the group (including parents) owes a $300 check to Mrs. Dreher (Alan's mom) to secure the plane tickets, hotel reservations, and rental cars for California. This is NON-REFUNDABLE. For example, my father will be traveling with us, so I owe her $600. Justin Bounds is traveling with us, but his parents are doing their own thing, so he owes $300.

PLEASE HAVE YOUR CHECKS BY MONDAY. If you're lazy and not reading the blog, I guess Tuesday is acceptable. I know most of you don't read this. DELAYING SCREWS US ALL OVER.

The longer we delay, the more expensive this trip is going to get. Over the last week, our plane fares have increased over $50 per ticket.

Once Alan's mom has received the checks, she will make reservations, buy tickets, and finalize everything. She will be handling all the logistics of the trip.

The other thing is that some of us are considering extending our stay in CA to do some sightseeing. Brian, we don't know what to do with you. We need to get EVERYONE (students and parents) together in one location at the same time and discuss the trip details. I will talk about this on Tuesday. Hopefully we can arrange this before March 1st because we need to sign the release forms which are fairly involved because of the televising.

At this point, Connor is no longer able to go.
The list is:

Myself
My father
Julien (mom?)
Justin
Alan
Alan's mom (dad?)
Brian

Mrs. Dreher needs to get $1500 by tuesday or she can't do everything she needs to do. If Julien's mom travels with the group, then she needs $1800...

REMEMBER: I NEED FULL NAMES, BIRTHDATES, ADDRESSES and a HEADSHOT PHOTO of EVERYONE GOING TO SAN FRANSISCO! PARENTS INCLUDED! this is required by the event organizer. In order to register the team and the bot for the competition I need a headshot for everyone and a birthdate so that we can get pit passes that are essentially photo ID's for admission into the pit areas. I haven't received ANY from ANYONE.

People going to california

2009-02-17T22:25:00.002-05:00

As of 11 PM Tuesday February 17th, these are the people going to San Francisco. I will give you until 2:00 tomorrow if there needs to be any changes to this list. This is NON-NEGOTIABLE. I told you that if you didn't tell me, I would NOT include you in the attending list. *cough*andrewlum*cough*

So. Going to San Fran:

-me
-my dad
-Alan
-Alan's parent(s)
-Julien
-Julien's mom
-Brian
-Connor
-Justin
-Justin's parent(s)

Which means we need a minimum of four hotel rooms. We will make every effort to put as many people as possible per room to try and keep costs to a minimum.
Hotels appear to be $100 - $120 per night per room. The more people in each room, the more economical this will be. With four people per room, it comes out to $200 per person.

There will also be expenses associated with:
-Food ~$200 per person
-Rental Car + gas + parking ~$50 per person
- it's a one hour drive from the airport to the hotel, and 15-20 minutes from the hotel to the competition.

This is $450 per person without airfare. We need to split up the remaining ticket costs for the students fairly.

It looks like about $500 per person.

In the past, we have had each student provide a check prior to the trip so that credit cards can be used to reserve plane tickets and hotel rooms. I want to purchase the plane tickets this week so that we can secure the lowest price possible. All these details will be worked out this week as all our parents get into an email loop and refine our plans.

It looks like we'll be flying out of sarasota at 7 AM 4/21, stopping over in Atlanta, flying from Atlanta to San Francisco and arriving around noontime. We can leave 11 PM 4/26 and get to SRQ at 9 AM 4/27, OR leave 7 AM 4/27 and get home around 1 PM. The problem with the second leave time is that it requires an additional night of hotels. It would be good if we can fly out the 26th. This doesn't mean EVERYONE has to leave the 26th... if your family wants to hang back and leave in the morning, that's cool too.

Email my dad - jcurhan@hydrogelvision.com - if you or your parents have any questions.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is the actual registration for the event.
For EVERYONE going (parents included) I need several things:
- birthdate
- address
- and a small headshot photo

EMAIL ME - guiswim7391@yahoo.com - with this for you (and your parents if they're going).

I want everyone to read this PDF that we will all have to sign. It talks about the rules and regulations with respect to the filming of the competition. When I bring it to you to sign next tuesday, you will need to know your SSN to fill in on the form. DON'T FORGET! When all students have signed, I will give you the signature page for your parents to sign. DON'T LOSE IT.

Hopefully this will be another fun, successful, safe trip.

California

2009-02-13T22:09:00.005-05:00

Okay guys.

You all know we are going out to California for the national competition. We need to finalize tickets and logistics VERY VERY SOON. The cost per person is going to be quite a bit lower than we initially estimated because Alan Dreher's family is donating four round-trip tickets to the club, on top of purchasing Alan's. I NEED TO KNOW WHO IS GOING!

SMT has agreed to make Copperhead's wheels for us. I need to get the Solidworks files to them this weekend, and Monday, purchase the aluminum to make them out of and ship it up to them.

The last week or so has been very productive. You should know by now that each weapon motor has its own little assembly of a baseplate, a bearing support plate, two hex standoffs and a plastic mount piece to hold the motor. Then the shaft has an aluminum adapter with a shaft collar, wheel, and bearing. The shaft adapters are all almost done - I just need to machine a keyway onto them. The baseplates and bearing plates are all done.
The motor mounts actually needed to have the rear corners chamfered (if you don't know what that means, LOOK IT UP) so that they would fit into the 12" circle that is the inner diameter of the pot. The whole thing is coming together nicely.

However, there is still a LOT that needs to get done.

We need to make the drive wheels, and figure out some way to attach tires to them.
We need to finish drilling holes in the two drive motor mounts that I started.
We need to finish drawing EVERYTHING in CAD so that I can just put coordinates on every hole, and we can just dial them in on the milling machine.
We need to figure out how to arrange and secure the batteries.
We need to get the center shaft welded and attached.
We need to buy 12 more bearings for the weapon motor assemblies, terminal blocks for the batteries...
We need to cut the shell, make a ring to stiffen it, design and fabricate the teeth for it, and then test the whole thing and learn how to drive it.
THEN when all that's done, we need to weigh it and figure out where we can take the weight out because we are definitely going to need to lighten this thing.

Thanks to everyone and their parents who have donated this week.

Dan

mkay. tuesday.

2009-02-08T21:13:00.003-05:00

okay guys I'm really sorry about last thursday. My dad was really sick and went home early from work. Andrew Foster, you're awesome and I feel really bad that you slipped through all my "DON'T GO!!" messages to everyone.

Anyways, TUESDAY. Tuesday after our meeting I will be going up to hydrogel to ACTUALLY work on the bot. If you can make it, it would be good. Nothing that we were going to do thursday got done, so we still have plenty of things to do.

We did get 10 colson wheels. They are so much better than the other ones... I'm not sure why I didn't pick them to begin with...

If anyone sees this before tuesday it would be good so you get advanced notice... so it's not just like a total surprise on tuesday when I tell you that I want you to come out and help.

we spun them up. they spin pretty good. :]

registration and pot

2009-02-03T22:29:00.002-05:00

So. Everyone at the meeting today saw the pot - it's pretty heavy duty aluminum. We will slice a ring off the top and keep the bottom. I will CAD the baseplate this week(end).

THURSDAY IS A GO. FO' SHO'.
We will be meeting after school up at hydrogel - again, 7575 commerce ct, sarasota, 34243 - around like 2 or 2:30. I am planning on staying late, til like 8 or 9 so if you can't come early but can come late you can still come.

we need to make the shafts for the wheels of the 15 lber, we need to finish the weapon motor bearing mounts (drilling and tapping holes), mount copperhead's electrical board to the frame, tin the wires on copperhead's battery system, start wiring the 15 lber....

there's a lot that needs to get done.

Hopefully I'll see you there. I won't be able to drive anyone out to hydrogel this time... sorry.

REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the CA competition. Registration for the 120 lb bots is $500, and for 15 lb bots is $300. The deadline for registration is MARCH FIRST.

Problem! D:

2009-01-28T09:38:00.006-05:00

Okay. So, I said I was going to Hydrogel last night. I did. We finished the wheels, the wheel axle adapters, the motor mounts, and made progress on the bearing mounts - both for the central bearing and the bearings on the weapon motor shafts - and the drive motor mounts.

We finished one weapon motor setup completely - and tested it. I was so excited about our wheels cause they were soft and squishy and I thought they would cushion the shell and provide some shock absorption. However, when we put the setup together, and clamped it to the table, and attached the battery, something I never expected happened.

First of all, I'm going to start with listing some statistics on the motors. The Speed 400 motors I picked for the weapon system have a stall torque of 12 oz-in at 7.2V. Which means, with ten, at 12V, it's about 180 oz-in or 11.25 lb-in. Since our little wheels are 2" in diameter, the radius is 1", so the weight to stall them is legitimately 11.25 lbs. We just have to be careful when we drive it to put the motors in neutral when we hit stuff so we don't stall them. And we do need all ten motors. With only 8 the motors would barely be able to handle it.

The RPM of the motor "under load" is 12700 at 7.2V, no load is 19200. It's got kV of 2227, giving an approximate no-load RPM of ~26700 at 12V. Doing a proportion, the load speed at 12V is ~17600 RPM. Which means the edge of the 2" wheels will be spinning at 111000 in / min. If we put the wheels on a 36" circumference circle (diameter - 11.459"), the shell will be spinning at 3071 RPM, and if the outer edge of the teeth is 14", the teeth will be spinning at 11256 ft/min or 127.9 mph. This is good.

So. Now that you know that the wheels are spinning at 111000 in/min or 105.1 mph, what do you think happens to the soft rubber on the wheels?

They explode!

well, sort of. The rubber expands to almost double it's original size and basically shreds itself against anything it touches. Scared the crap out of my dad and I... So we need new wheels. I think these wheels from robotmarketplace will work. They are thicker (7/8" instead of 3/4") and have a 1/2" bore instead of 5/16" so we will need to do a significant amount of work to make them work, but they will work. work. WORK.

build on mlk day

2009-01-17T22:49:00.002-05:00

if anyone can come out on monday to work on the bot(s), it would be greatly appreciated. I'm gonna leave here around 8:30. I can pick up just about anyone within reason who needs a ride, but if you have to drive yourselves then plan to be there at like 9-ish.

7575 commerce ct
sarasota fl
34243

we'll probably leave by 2:30

new year's progress

2009-01-02T21:36:00.002-05:00

alright. So. There are two build days that I need to recount. On the first, Monday December 22nd, Robert and Simeng came out and helped. We finished cutting the corners out of the back of copperhead to save weight for the new wheels - which i still need to get made - and got a bunch of parts from robotmarketplace for the fifteen pounder.

We got:
-the charger that they forgot to give us in our last order
-a 13.5 volt power supply to run the chargers
-10 speed 400 motors
-10 2 inch wheels (which are AWESOME!)
-another speedmax40 speed controller (we already had one from D.O.)
-a sabertooth dual speed controller
-a spektrum dx5e controller with BR6000 battlebot receiver chip
aanndd that's pretty much it.

My dad and I made a nice little charging station with the power supply and the two chargers and a spare e-stop switch he had. To use it, you twist the red knob to turn the power on, then connect the alligator clips to the corresponding terminals of a battery - make sure you use the wire pairs and don't cross leads! To discharge the batteries, connect the batteries first, then give the system power. To turn it off, just hit the red button.

Eddie and I determined that we need to run all three batteries in one circuit to supply all the motors in copperhead, instead of having 2 for the drive system and 1 for the weapon. So, to do that, I used a terminal strip thingy.

Today, Andrew Lum came out to help. I finished my design for the mounting system for the ten little motors in the fifteen pound bot, and we went to Alro and got a big 6 lb hunk of delrin. If you don't know what delrin is, go use the internet. We got the delrin, and it was 2.5" x 3" x 18" which is waaayyyy more than we need. We need ten parts that are 1" x 1.5" x 1.75" so we had to cut. And mill. And mill. And mill...
I spent two hours making the huge rough blocks that we cut from the barstock into little 1" x 1.5" x 1.75" blocks that were all the same. I had produced a huge mountain of white plastic chips all over - it looked like it snowed! The final step (which I haven't done yet) is to take a big 1.25" countersink mill and mill a V-groove across the center of each block to cradle the motor. Then we need to drill and tap two holes for a 1/4-20 threaded rod, and get 20 bronze standoffs an inch and a quarter tall. Finally, we bolt up through the floor of the bot to secure the mounts to the inside of the bot. The motor itself is secured by a tie-wrap type thing - it's aluminum and tightens with an allen key. We may have to file down the bottom corners so that it can really tighten flat.

I also bound the new receiver chip to the new transmitter, and took apart D.O. to salvage what we can from it. The drive motors are scrap - when i went to pull the wheel off, it pulled the entire output shaft out of the gearbox!

And, back to Copperhead, I lightened the front blocks from the shaft clamp. They are made out of 7075 aluminum, so they're pretty light to begin with, but every little bit helps. I took maybe 2 ounces out of them, total? but still, it's something. And it was easy. Cutting out the edges of the back corners saved us a fair amount of weight - it's 3/16" steel plate!

Now that we have the battery charger set up and an r/c system that works with a charger and everything, I have epoxied the tire back on to copperhead's wheel, so it is now driveable, and I want to bring a bunch of you out on a saturday or something to drive copperhead. I need to figure out who our driver is going to be.

MARCH 29TH 2009.
DADE COUNTY YOUTH FAIR, MIAMI
15lb BOTSIQ COMPETITION!

We need to finish this 15 pounder in time to compete!

APRIL 20-26 2009.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
120 lb NAT'L BATTLEBOTS COMPETITION
IT WILL BE TELEVISED!

let's get these bots ready!

On a different - but related - note, going to california will be expensive. I don't know how much, but it will be significant. If you have not contirbuted financially to the club, you WILL NOT GET HELP financing your trip. Like I said, I wish the money didn't have to come from your parents, but it looks like we have no other options...

I don't think we need to meet this coming tuesday - it's the second day back from break, so I'll let everyone get settled in again. But the next week, count on a meeting.

working tomorrow

2009-01-01T23:41:00.002-05:00

hey guys

sorry about the late notice on this, but my dad and I are going out to hydrogel tomorrow to work on the bots. If you see this tomorrow morning and you can go (which is pretty unlikely), please let me know - 315.4326 - and I would love for you to come out and help.

we got a whole bunch of stuff for the 15 lb bot but I will put all those details into a separate post probably tomorrow night.

copperhead's drum

2008-12-20T09:37:00.009-05:00

I took Copperhead's drum to Rick Wilson's general machine shop a few weeks ago, and asked him if he would build up the teeth a little bit with weld - to restore them to their original shape - and to drill out the ends of the shaft a little more to save some weight. I got them both back yesterday, and he did a great job. Thanks Rick! I just need to now grind down the corners - or better yet, have one of you guys grind down the corners and shape the teeth! YAY! You'll actually be doing something! SO. My dad said that at Hydrogel (his company) they are NOT running production between Christmas and New Year's, so that is our perfect window of opportunity to get out there and do stuff...

Thanks Chippendale for your contribution, and thank you to the three people who donated a total of $40 a few meetings ago. I will write that check out over break and get that money into the account.

I need to straighten out our latest RobotMarketplace order... actually the last two... and get our parts!
-The first order came at the end of the week before last, and was supposed to have two battery chargers in it, but only came with one. I called them immediately, and they said they would ship out the other charger Monday. It didn't come before break, so I don't know when we will have it.
-The second order was probably kinda sorta my fault. I was trying to buck the system and save money by not paying for shipping and picking up the items because I knew that they were opening a retail store in Bradenton. So I submitted a purchase order online, and they make you fax it as well and stuff, so the online order total included shipping... and the faxed PO didn't.

I asked them to call me, but they were busy with their relocation, and couldn't/didn't. So I will call them on Monday and find out where are stuff is, what I can get and what I can't. They called the school, and told them that the gearmotors were on backorder, and the Griffin-40 SC was discontinued. SO. That means we wait for the gearmotors (because they recommended what we used last year - NO! those were P.O.S. motors!) and use the SpeedMax-40 SC's that we used in DO last year. They work fine, the Griffin just had a brake function.

OKAY. Now for a serious build day consideration. MONDAY. Monday, the 22nd is the first day we can build. If anyone is around and wants to help, let me know. I can take three or four people. We're gonna get there around 9-ish, and leave around 1:30 or 2 depending on how much we can do.

We need to get things in gear because we need time to debug these things once they're built. If something doesn't work right, we need to know before competition.

Julien, see if your dad's company will be willing to donate again this year.

It's time to get to work!

designs

2008-12-05T21:06:00.003-05:00

So. We have basically narrowed down our quest for the perfect design to three designs. I hope we can build all three.

1) a powerful 30 lb wedge
-use short mags/team whyachi gearboxes for the drive system? insane and ridiculous but it could possibly do well.
-EXPENSIVE - the short mags are $299 each and the gearboxes are $450 each... so budget $1500 JUST for the drive weapons system. Then speed controllers, $180 each x2, and batteries, ~$100 each and we'd probably need two... so I would budget $2000 - $2250 for this bot.

2) a Copperhead copy with some important changes
-3 bar thresher instead of drum
-recessed wheels
-more angled backside
-This design doesn't have much refinement yet...

3) a full body spinner (15 lb)
-I'm almost done finishing my design (you can download my CAD drawing (.dwg) here)

The full body spinner has 12 motors in it. Yes. twelve.
10 Speed 400 Motors with 2" wheels attached that spin the drum, and 2 ML-3506 Planet ary Gearmotors. Everything runs at 12V, with 20 1.2V cells spread throughout the bot. The weapon motors are controlled with two Griffin-40 speed controllers, and the drive with a Sabertooth 10 dual speed controller.

Everything worked out, the total component cost of the bot (12 motors, 10 2" wheels, SCs, batteries, and a central bearing) is about $555. This doesn't include the shell and other stuffff. And weight wise, it is PERFECT! I put the shell in Solidworks 3D and it weighs 6.32 lbs, and all the components add up to 7.7 lbs which leaves another lb for other stuff, and doesn't account for any lightening in the shell. So it's very good.

There are a few details I need to work out, such as the exact mount for the weapon motors, and the exact coupling for these motors to the wheels because the shaft is 2.3 mm (.090") and the wheels have a 3.175 mm (.125") shaft.... In this CAD screenshot, the blue and green are the batteries. The white is structure, and weapon motors and wheels, and the pink are the drive wheels/motors.

I am hoping to order a large amount of the parts for this next week, so hopefully we'll have everything by break. You will all have to check this to find out when we are building over break, because I promise we will do something physical over break.

JULIEN AND ROBERT! CALL THE EFEST PEOPLE!

thanks.
:]

help our potential sponsor!

2008-11-22T21:18:00.002-05:00

Okay. Here's the deal. Rob Brady is interesting in supporting our team. He is the owner of a local design firm that has worked with Hummer, Segway, etc. and he has designed a Mercedes for a contest. His daughter, Anna Mumford, graduated Pine View last year (and sat next to me in calculus...) so he has some tie to the school.
If he wins this contest, it would bode well for us. So we need to help him win. This is what Anna said:

Hey everybody!
As you may or may not know, my dad Rob Brady is an amazing industrial designer, entrepreneur, and founder of RoBrady Design!
He has worked so hard and come soo far since the very beginning, working with companies like Yamaha, Segway, and Hummer.

He recently designed a concept car for Mercedes, and NEEDS OUR VOTES to go to the next step with his design. It will only take 20 seconds. I promise.

HOW TO VOTE:

***Text GLK25 to 48457 to vote for the Urban Whip
or...
1) go to http://microsites.mbusa.com/microsite/glk-class/index.do#/main/sema/index
2) click on the orange "Vote for your favorite tuner"
3) Vote for THE URBAN WHIP and click submit.

Please vote for him!! He's such an great and talented person, and he would appreciate it so so much (as would I).
Thanks so much guys!!!
AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TOO!!!!

Also, feel free to comment on the designs; Ill pass along the word to him!

To check out more photos of the Urban Whip, Click on the gray box "See the Tuners" and click on "Blvd Customs".

-Anna-

this is a facebook group too, called

Vote for Rob's (my dad) Mercedes Design!!! PLEASE!!

so go VOTE!!! We need his help, and he needs ours. A success would be mutual. Tell everyone you know to vote for the URBAN WHIP.

thanks
Dan

15 lb competition IN MIAMI!!

2008-11-19T09:21:00.006-05:00

My dad emailed Nola Garcia, the director of BotsIQ, and she gave us some really really good news.

Hi Jeff,
There will be a competition in Miami at the Dade County youth Fair in March for 15 pound robots as well as task oriented robots. The dates are: Task oriented March 28th, 15 pound March 29th.
The information will be coming out of the Bots IQ site hopefully today - we were promised by the IT people that the site would be up today after 3.
Keep in touch and hopefully we can see you in Miami in March.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Nola
P.S. If you have more questions just let me know :-)

This is incredibly AWESOME news! It means that we can compete inexpensively IN FLORIDA, so Dr. Skipper can go. This is wonderful. We can still compete at other competitions around the country, but we would have to limit the number of students attending.

Remember, everyone needs to get into groups and design a bot. There is no meeting next week, but the week after that we will meet. If you do not have a design for a 12, 15, or 30 lb bot at the meeting in two weeks, YOU WILL NOT BUILD A BOT. We need to get started here, and I don't think you will get as much out of this club if I just design four bots and assign teams to build them. It doesn't work like that.

RobotMarketplace has everything you will need. If you have any questions about how to do something or how something works, ask me. I will help you. I will go over your designs and make sure you don't fail. If you are worried about building the bot - DON'T. I want our TEAM to succeed, not just MY bots, so everyone's designs will get the same scrutinizing optimization.

I called RobotMarketplace, and the purchase order I made last week should be sent out tomorrow. This will let us finish EVERYTHING except the wheels on Copperhead.

selling stuff

2008-11-14T22:17:00.003-05:00

I got called into the office today, and Mrs. Baranowski and Coach Donovan told me that we cannot sell anything food-related until 3. There was a mandate from the "higher-ups" stating that "competitive sales of candy, food, or drink are prohibited within an hour of the last available lunch period." Which means that we can't sell ANYTHING FOOD RELATED between 6:00 and 3:00. Which pretty much rules out us selling anything at all.

And there's nothing we can do about it.

grrrrrrrrr.

Purchase Order #1

2008-11-12T15:44:00.007-05:00

Mkay.

I said in the meeting yesterday that I was going to submit a P.O. for some battery chargers and a speed controller...
So I did.

I guess Mrs. Fisher is a little behind in printing up the receipts for stuff, so our account balance showed up as only $347.58, however we have received $500, $100, and $129.40 from various sources, putting our account balance in at $1076.98.
The purchase order for two battery chargers (Astroflight 110 Deluxe Charger) a speed controller (IFI Thor 883) and two PWM signal booster cables came to $492.38 leaving us with $584.60.

Julien, I need to bring you in there with me one time, because, as you know, Mrs. Fisher is a little picky with who she deals graciously with. I think she likes me (:P) so I'll get you on her good list for next year so things will be a little easier for you.

On a different note...
As you all know, I drew a rough sketch for the 120 lb ring spinner. I want to know what you guys think the best thing to do is. Should I just finish it and finialize it myself, or should I show the club at meetings and have you give me input? I know I haven't really gotten much of any input from anyone about the design, so I am worried that only doing it at meetings will be painfully unproductive and I might as well be doing it on my own.
Should I just finish it or do you want to contribute?

And as far as fifteen pound bots are concerned, I think you should all form little "groups" that you want to work with within the club (like three to five groups), and I want each group to come up with an idea for a 15 or 30 lb bot that you want to build, and have rough sketches and stuff. We can do this next meeting if you want, or you can do it between now and then. I would prefer the latter. Because I don't think you will get as much out of this club if you are just working on fabricating parts for something you had no part in designing. That isn't engineering, that is machining.

I'm getting really optimistic about being able to build several smaller robots and compete them because I think we may have enough money for that, and possibly not enough for a fresh 120. If we can afford a 120 as well, that would be wonderful, but in the meantime, I think we should focus on smaller bots. They can be almost as exciting as 120s. I promise!

So think about it (please!) and we'll lay down the groundwork for the three to five small bots you guys are going to build. All the components you could possibly need are available at RobotMarketplace so GET TO WORK! I want lists of components, a description of the weapon system, a description of the drive system, and how it will all work together.

I know you're not totally sure what you're doing. I know you've never built a robot before. That's what I'm here for. Try it, ask me if you need any help, and you'll be all set to do it again next year because you will have learned from this year.

I'm hoping to be ready to start ordering parts and finalizing drawings by the time we get enough money to do so.

As far as this constantly updating blog page goes, we now have a "sponsors" thing at the bottom that is a constantly looping display of the logos of our sponsors, and those with websites link to the websites (you just have to double-click them... i'll fix that lol) and on the right, in the "links" box, I added a members list. If anything in that members list is incorrect, let me know and i'll fix it.

On an even different note...

I mentioned a competition that is taking place in Pennsylvania: MOTORAMA.
The Competition is taking place in Harrisburg, February 20 - 22, 2009.
I have looked at many different options for travel. We could fly or drive or maybe even take a train (which I haven't looked at yet...). Driving, it is an 1100 mile drive, about 18 hours. This is long, two days, and we would need to probably rent a van or RV and we'd have to leave on Wednesday, and get back late on the next Tuesday... but it would be cheaper than flying.
In order to fly, right now, the tickets would cost about $270 per person, round trip. Plus hotel rooms for four night, so I would budget each person at $500 for the trip. This is only to compete non-120 lb bots. So to make it worth it, we should have several.

This is definitely a challenging logistical problem...

solidworks

2008-11-10T13:55:00.003-05:00

If you know about CAD software, then you've probably heard of solidworks. We have asked for a copy of Solidworks from Nola Garcia, one of the directors of BotsIQ. She has given us several student versions for use by the club. I will bring these to school tomorrow for you.

Mrs. Strothman (my girlfriend's mom) knows someone who is interested in helping us in a very substantial way, so I need to contact him. This could be the kickstart that we need to start finalizing things.

In the meantime, we have enough money to buy a pair of battery chargers, which we are in desparate need of. I will submit that purchase order tomorrow...

pine view fair update

2008-11-04T11:13:00.003-05:00

Well. It seems my estimate of our earnings from the Pine View Fair was a little off... we actually made $113.40 in tickets and $16 in cash, totaling $129.40 which is better than I thought.

donation!

2008-11-01T13:44:00.002-04:00

One of my neighbors decided to donate $100 to the club... bringing our donation total to $711.25 since the beginning of the school year. This is still pretty sad. It's November! I know we're about to step it up a bit with sustainable projects, but this is really important. If, by the time January rolls around, people have not found a way to contribute substantially to the club, I will hold your families liable for your donations! You don't want that!

Thank you Jon and Dawn Kochevar!

AutoCAD 2000

2008-10-27T19:05:00.005-04:00

I zipped the whole folder from my program files to put online... I haven't tested it, but unzip it to your program files. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's gonna ask for some .DLL file from your System32 folder. If it does, please comment and let me know what file to go get so that I can put that online as well so we can get AutoCAD working for you.... I will also upload my drawing files if you want them.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2mznvmzyj5i/ACAD2000.zip

then you need this folder (autodesk shared) to put in C:\program files\common files\

http://www.mediafire.com/file/nucym5ijyzz/Autodesk Shared.zip

and this registry file:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/eky4cyttcwy/CADfile.reg

EXCEPT eddie said that this didn't work cause he's the only one who tried it... c'mon guys! stop being lazy! He has downloaded an ISO image file and split it into four files and uploaded them to MediaFire... this gives you the install file... which should work...
Serial #: 112-99027249
CDKey: MR2V23

(these are my serial numbers from my version - I have the CD case, but not the install CD... I HAD it, but I don't know where it went... :/)

SO i will download this to my computer and put it onto CD's for you... TELL ME TONIGHT HERE IF YOU WANT IT otherwise you WILL NOT GET IT until next week.

hrmph.

2008-10-24T23:28:00.002-04:00

Well. Julien's article seemed like it would produce some $$, but apparently, Osprey is not in the "greater Venice area." Here is what I sent them:

To whomever it may concern,
I am the president of the Pine View School Engineering Club. It is a student-run club that started in 2005. The club's goal this year is to compete several battlebots in competitions around the nation as it has the last three years. Three years ago, the club's first robot, Copperhead I, placed fifth in the nation at the BotsIQ competition. The year after, the team won the outstanding championship award at the same competition. Last year, the third revision of Copperhead placed first in the nation in the BotsWorldwide high school 120 lb division. This year, with the economic downturn, our fundraising efforts are encountering many tight purses. In order for our club to continue doing what we are passionate about [building battlebots], we need funding. I understand you are awarding $3,000 grants to organizations in the greater Venice area. Pine View is in Osprey, so I hope that that is close enough. We have no funding from the school - everything we do is funded by corporate donors and families. We would greatly appreciate a grant such as this so that we can begin construction on this year's bot(s). The club has grown significantly since our highly publicized win last year, so with the dozen additional members, it will be quite difficult to keep everyone occupied if we are only working on one bot, and in order to bulid multiple bots, we need more funding. This grant would be greatly appreciated. If there is a specific application, please send it my way if this club is eligible to receive it.

Thank you,
Dan Curhan
(941)315-4326

And this was their response:

Dan Curhan,

Thank you for your inquiry. Our Foundation limits the grants we award to the communities of Englewood, Laurel, Nokomis, North Port, South Venice and Venice.

Cynthia Wood
Chariperson, Grants Committee
The Foundation at The Venice Golf and Country Club

ewwwww. That was rather blunt. There was no "cool, battlebots!" or "i understand you're a student so i'm gonna be nice to you," just "murfle." yknow?

So... no money from them. It would have been nice though...

If you want AutoCAD so you can try and figure it out, email me, and I'll see if I can put a link up to it. It really helps when you are doing your wheels. Trust me.

meeting 10/21

2008-10-21T19:25:00.003-04:00

Everybody must give me some kind of drawing of a wheel that you think would be strong and light. It must be able to resist being squished into an oval and bent into a taco. The outside diameter must be 7.625 inches. the inner diameter must be 1 inch, with room for a 1/4" key. If you don't know what that means, look at the picture. The hole must be 1 inch, and the little rectangle has to be 1/4" wide by 1/8" deep (from the tangent point on the circle). You will hear me talking about ID and OD, and those are just Inner Diameter and Outer Diameter. It's industry standard.

The article that julien found (or that his mom found) says that the Venice Golf and Country Club Foundation will award $3,000 grants to organizations in the greater Venice area. We should apply. I need to email vgccfoundation@comcast.net and ask for an application. Hopefully we can be awarded one of these grants. $3,000 would be really really nice.

Robert, email me what you need for the e-fest thingy.

Andrew, email me what you are planning on doing, and what you need/want me to do. I can also tell you how to make a blogger account, and I can add you as an author to this so that you can update us on how things are going with your proposed game, and what you need from everyone else.

Everyone else, keep asking everyone you know for money. I'm serious. We need to raise enough money to do things. I'm not gonna be able to do it all for you.

ring spinner

2008-10-18T22:31:00.006-04:00

OK. so in doing calculations on the phone with Eddie, I have determined some things for a ring spinner to work and be reasonable to build.

1) the raw materials and size

----------> McMaster Carr sells 1/4" chrome-moly steel in 6" x 36" pieces. This limits the construction of our ring to 6 inches tall, and the easiest circumference is 9 feet (3 strips) which gives us a diameter of 34.377 inches.

2) the weight

----------> The density of chrome-moly steel is 0.283 lbs/cu in. The ring is 0.25 x 6 x 108 = 162 cu in times .283 = 45.846 lbs.

3) the construction

----------> The ring would have a chrome-moly tube welded on the inside with a bearing running above and below it to support the ring. This tube would be 1 x 1/2 with a wall thickness of .065" giving us a .1781 sq in cross-sectional area, over 9 feet gives us an additional 5.44 lbs in the ring, totaling 52.286 lbs.

4) the speed

----------> The ring is powered by 3 short mags (at 120 degree angles) with right angle gearboxes and wheels pressed against the inside of the ring. The speed of the teeth has to be around 150 mph. This means that the ring needs to spin at least 1500 RPM to be effective. The short mags spin at 6000 RPM, which means that the ideal final ratio would be around 3:1. The best way we came up with to do this was to have a 1:2 gear ratio in the right angle gearbox, and then use a wheel. A 6 inch wheel gives a final ratio of 2.823:1 and a final RPM of 2125 and a linear velocity of 217 mph. If we were to use a 5 inch wheel it would give a ratio of 3.388:1 and an RPM of 1771 and a linear velocity of 177 mph.

5) the drive

----------> The drive system is just two Team Whyachi gearboxes with two short mags, and two eight inch wheels. It should be simple.

6) weight of everything else

----------> The weight of the five short mags is 19 lbs. The weight of the two Team Whyachi gearboxes is 9 lbs. 4 battery packs weigh about 10 lbs. This totals 38 lbs, plus 52.286 for the ring, totaling 90.286 lbs leaving about 30 lbs for everything else: supports, armor, frame, right angle gearboxes, wheels, electronics, etc. It is doable, but we are gonna have to drill holes in the ring.

I will have a rough CAD drawing hopefully by tuesday. I think this design is the best 120 lb design because it's original, and the design does require some real engineering to make it work.

Wiring Guide

2008-10-15T18:29:00.003-04:00

This is the finished guide. I roughed it a few posts ago, but this is the final version. It should help a lot, especially for next year when I am not around. Please read it. I may even quiz you on it next week, because it's really important that you guys know some of this stuff.

http://www.mediafire.com/?fwoknmky54m
(the link is also under "wiring guide" in the 'links to useful stuff' box on the right side of the page)

If you have any questions, post them as comments, and I will answer them next week.

Pine View Fair is OVER

2008-10-11T20:12:00.003-04:00

Fundraising results from the fair:

381 tickets = $95.25
+ $16 in cash
_____________

TOTAL: $111.25

this number seems small, but every little bit helps. And hey, we kinda had some fun.

Videos of the potato gun: vid-1 vid-2

pine view fair and construction

2008-10-10T07:34:00.004-04:00

I called Ben Turoff (the man in charge of the fair) and he gave us a go for pretty much anything we want to do. We have about a 20 x 20 area behind the main tent. If the ooblek pool turns out to be too much, we can set up an obstacle-race course for R/C cars, and have two people race them. I will be calling people tonight to ask about who has R/C cars - or just comment this post and let me know if you have one. Everyone who wants to help set up the race course (because I think the ooblek pool is going to prove to be too expensive...) should get to school at nine tomorrow.

Last night, I went out to Hydrogel (where my dad works, and where we have access to a full machine shop, and where we will be doing most of our building) with the goal to make both bots work. Demansi Olivacea runs, but the drive motors suck. The gears in the gearboxes are all stripped, so they don't drive the wheels. The motor spins, and makes noise, but the wheels don't move. The weapon motor spins up really nicely, and I forgot how powerful the little weapon on the front could be if it was heavier. It's still pretty impressive even when it's this small. There are YouTube videos of me testing it from last night.
(1) and (2).

The repairs necessary for Copperhead III from last year's competition were:
- new wheels
- new motor mount brackets
- new front posts
- switch drum spin controller for a speed controller
- new battery mount system
- WEIGHT
- new Lexan top/bottom armor (not urgent)
- fix broken ring terminal for weapon system
- wire batteries in parallel
- cooling for batteries

We have bought tires for the new wheels, and I have made new front posts. I made new motor mount brackets as well, but they may be temporary if we cannot lighten them. I re-soldered the ring terminal for the switch for the weapon system, and I welded the nuts to hold the front posts to the frame. This was a very important fix, and should help significantly. On a "construction notes" note - when wiring the PWM cables to the R/C chip - for a fifteen pound bot, you do not need a separate cable for battery power to the receiver chip IF your speed controller has a built-in BEC (battery eliminating circuit - it will step down a high voltage to five or six volts and send that through the PWM cable to the receiver chip). The two drive motors wire to AILE and ELE (aileron and eleron functions - associated with the right stick on the controller - they automatically mix with the Spektrum DX6.1 controller so you can drive with one stick. And the weapon wires to the throttle. You need to train the voltage regulator (a.k.a. speed/spin controller - if you can) so that if you have a spin controller, then full negative throttle outputs 0V and full positive is 100% (or you can cut it back so max is 80% or whatever you choose). If you have a reversible speed controller, then full negative throttle needs to be 100% voltage (or your max) in the reverse direction and full positive is 100% voltage in the forward direction. This training process varies among all the speed/spin controllers out there - each one is different.
When wiring the BR6000 bot receiver (which is the one we are using) the black lead for the PWM cable goes to the negative (ground) terminal on the receiver - white is signal, red is positive, and black is ground. The particular spin controller we used in the 15 lb bot, a SpeedMax-40 spin controller [they call it a speed controller but it's non-reversible, so I call it a spin controller] has brown, red, and orange leads. The orange is signal, red is positive, and brown is ground.

The wiring for this bot is pretty efficient and works well, so I am going to suggest a setup similar to this for when you design your bots (if applicable).

-2 geared drive motors (one right, one left)
-1 weapon motor (a 12V deWalt drill motor works well - it's quite powerful)
-for a non-reversible weapon, the SpeedMax-40 sc works great - it's fully programmable
-for the drive motors, a double speed controller with BEC - Sabertooth 25 Dual 25A Motor Driver
-two 12V battlepacks with PowerPole connectors

1) wire the batteries in parallel so you keep the 12V rating, but double the current
--> do this with Y cables - you can make them yourself, they're just a pain, have two PowerPole connectors and two prong (fork) terminals.
2) wire a switch interrupting the + battery lead. I will refer to the + battery lead as the lead that comes AFTER the switch.
3) the double speed controller has six big input/output terminals on one side, and four small inputs on the other. The big terminals are the power in/out and motor connections, and the others are PWM connections (you have to take the PWM connector terminals off that end of the PWM cable to screw them into the terminal blocks).
--> the middle two big terminals are for the batteries. They are labeled + and -. RED is ALWAYS positive. Bend the prong connectors into a 60 degree angle so that they can interface with the two terminals, and attach them to the BACK side of the terminal. Then attach the stripped wire leads (red + black) of the SpeedMax SC to the + and - battery teminals. This is so that the SC [spin controller] has power and can function, regardless of whether the dual SC is outputting voltage to the drive motors. These two systems MUST be independent. The pair of terminals on either side of the battery terminals are for the motors (R and L) and the wiring is simply a + and - stripped wire lead for each motor.
--> the four small terminal blocks on the other side of the dual SC are for the PWM cables. Leave one end of each PWM cable with a connector on it, and leave stripped wire ends for the other side. Attach the connector side to the appropriate spot (AILE or ELE) on the receiver chip. A PWM cable has three leads - two for power (+V and ground) and one for the signal. The two grounds (blacks) and the two +V's (reds) each pair up, and wire into the 0V and 5V terminals, respectively. 0V is for the grounds, and 5V is for the + leads. The S1 and S2 terminals are for the white signal leads from each PWM cable - depending on which cable is ELE and which is AILE, they will either go to S1 or S2. You may need to experiment to determine this. (the manual for the dual SC)
4) the SpeedMax SC's yellow stripped wire leads are labeled M+ and M- and go to the + and - terminals on the weapon motor. The PWM cable goes to the receiver chip - brown is signal, orange is - and red is +.

This should be all the wiring necessary for a simple 3-motor small bot.

FUNDRAISING

2008-10-07T17:16:00.004-04:00

This is the official fundraising post. If you get anyone to agree to donate, or to actually donate $, comment THIS POST (there will be a link to it in the links box on the right side so you don't have to go scrolling for it every time). This is so I can keep track of our sponsors and of our finances. I know my dad has already donated over $600 to get us started this year. SMT (Southern Manufacturing Technologies - a high-volume machine shop in Tampa) donated $1000 to get our account out of the red at the end of last year. Shannon Sweatman, their Systems Administrator, was a volunteer at BotsIQ 2007, and 2008, and she is a reliable contact. Josh Weinstein at Witzco Trailers (on MacIntosh rd. in Sarasota) promised me $500 today when I spoke with him on the phone. I gave him all the information on writing out the check for us, so hopefully we will receive that before the end of the month. Remember, every little bit helps. If a company agrees to $100, don't feel like you haven't accomplished anything. You have just earned $100 for the club! But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get out there and FUNDRAISE!!!

pine view fair status

2008-10-06T17:07:00.003-04:00

well, guys, I was hoping to have more to tell you all, but I really don't know the status of our PV fair submission. I called the guy in charge and left him a message last week, and he hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I'm hoping this won't turn into a PV fail type thing. haha :P

Andrew Lum said...: you guys wanna test the cornstarch in like a huge bucket or something, just so we know it works and the proper measurements?

-yes. We definitely should somehow test it on a much smaller scale to make sure it works.

That being said, Dr. Skipper is not going to be around sixth period tomorrow, but we will still meet outside his room. I'm just bringing in my idea notebook from last year so you all can look at it...

Again, still kinda waiting to get started. I'll see what I can do designwise for NEXT week, but I really don't want to be the only one contributing here. If I do everything this year, what will happen next year when I'm gone? right? Julien, get to work!

Also, please let me know if you guys actually give the flyer to people. Don't hand it out, and then not tell me, cause if I go places and they're like "we've already got one," I won't be very happy. And if you raise any money, put how much you raise in a comment as well. THIS IS IMPORTANT! I'm going to contact Witzco (who promised to donate) tomorrow during our meeting, so we'll see how much they give us...

MEEEETINGGGG (and PV fair)

2008-09-30T16:07:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time, a young man named Andrew went on an epic quest. His goal: a PV Fair form. His enemy: time. He battled his way across campus, leaving frightened fourth graders and terrified third graders in his substantial wake; he was a man on a mission. After dodging trees and jumping puddles, he finally arrived at the front office, where he was confronted with a final challenge: Mrs. Lewis. He used his charisma and charm to bewitch her into relinquishing her single remaining copy of the form, but at last it was in this valiant warrior's grasp! He hurried back the way he came and delivered the trophy into my waiting hands...

thanks Andrew :P

ANYWAYS. [sorry]
we did get the front office's last copy of the Pine View Fair booth request form, and we decided on a booth, or combination of such things. Take a rectangular kiddie pool, and fill it with cornstarch and water, and have kids pay to run across it. Then, have a separate line for kids to throw water balloons at the kids running across (the kids running across can opt-out of this... of course) and finally, a table set up somewhere with Copperhead III, Demansi Olivacea (the 15lb bot), my laptop playing a looping video of the battle highlights, and finally a stack of club info papers, donation forms, and a donation box. Hopefully all this will get approved, because it's pretty cool. (the video that cole showed is also on youtube here)

and I showed off the remains of demansi olivacea. Overall, not very EXCITING meeting, but it was actually productive.

Photos and such

2008-09-30T09:49:00.003-04:00

First off, if it's not too late to get into the PV fair, that would be phenomenal. We need a big clear plastic box with a slit and half-fill it with fake donation cards and like a million dollar bills and stuff so people think that other people are donating and that way they'll be more likely to donate.
but shhhh don't tell. :]

Ok.
I have uploaded the best battle photos I have of Copperhead III to photobucket...
I'll put them all here.

Mrs. Abrams wants the minutes of our meeting, so I'm gonna assign someone to that.

And Demansi Olivacea is in my trunk....
Mwahahaha!
(?)

photos:

Flyer

2008-09-21T21:24:00.003-04:00

Okay. This is the first version of the flyer I promised. It says what NEEDS to be said, and is pretty barebones, with some big photos. This is not a "waBAM" style flyer that we would give to the type of Harley-riding dudes who work in metal shops... this is more professional. I will come up with a more exciting flyer either later tonight or tomorrow. Again, let me know if there is anything you would change.
-->http://www.mediafire.com/?whyenz3zdmn

If you want this, print it. Color would be much better than not, and I do not want to use up all my color ink cartridges printing copies of this. I can print one, and get it copied a bunch of times at Kinko's or something, and give the receipt to Mrs. Fisher if this is a problem...

On a different note, I found Tadiran batteries. I don't know if they are rechargeable or not, but they have some impressive specs and claim to be the highest power density batteries available.
-->Tadiran.com
I sent them an email asking if their batteries would be appropriate for use in our battlebots, and I am waiting for a reply.

oh and in the right-hand column of this blog is a new "gadget" called "links to useful stuff" which is exactly what it sounds like. Links to useful stuff. So you don't have to go scrolling through old blog posts to find a specific link to something from months ago...

DON'T FORGET WHAT I WANT FROM YOU FOR TUESDAY!
:]

competitions...

2008-09-18T20:38:00.006-04:00

okay guys. I'm making a new post instead of editing the old one, because this is monumental news. There is a chance that we won't be attending botsIQ this year. Instead, there are competitions in Gainesville, North Carolina, Chicago (area), Seattle, and several in CA (but those would be very difficult to pull off...). The website with the listing of all the major battlebot-style events is buildersdb.com. Kinda in the middle of the main screen are five upcoming events in Seattle, Philidelphia, Rosemont IL, Gilroy CA, and Australia.

For your reference, the weight classes are as follows: (you will often see "weight" at the end of the word, for example antweight and beetleweight)
__________________
Ant = 1 lb
Beetle = 3 lbs
Hobby = 12/15 lbs
Feather = 30 lbs
Light = 60 lbs
Middle = 120 lbs
Heavy = 220 lbs
Super = 340 lbs
__________________

In order to immerse you guys in this whole process as quickly and completely as possible, I think we can possibly compete in a competition on November 15th in Gainesville. It is not yet on buildersdb, so I don't have any specifics, but I know that the largest weight class is 30 lbs, so it's gonna be small-scale stuff, but it should still be a lot of fun. So. Instead of designing a 15 lb bot, try thinking of a 30 lb design. With 30 lbs to work with, there are more options and choices for materials, components, etc. The website for this competition is here: http://botleague.net/rfl-news-atom.asp but it's just a kind of news feed for the Robot Fighting League. I strongly encourage everyone to read the Robot Fighting League rules here: http://www.botleague.net/doc/RFLTechRegs-2008-01.pdf so that you don't come to me with a flamethrower/laser/acid spitting/RF interference design or something similar that IS NOT ALLOWED. Most competitions DO NOT allow flame or heat weapons so just ignore that whole section. It is in RED for a REASON.

On a different note, whatever competition(s) we attend, we need a faculty adviser to accompany us. If it is out of FL, Dr. Skipper will not go. Therefore, we need another faculty adviser to chaperone the trip if we leave the state. I spoke with Mr. Seider (Adam), the elementary art teacher, because Dr. Skipper told me he was interested. He knows how to weld, so he could also be of some technical help too... Anyways, he said that he would be very willing to go with us as our chaperone. If you don't know him, he's a pretty cool guy. Dr. Skipper will still be our sponsor, but Mr. Seider is... a backup? something like that.

And I expect everyone to have something on paper for next tuesday.
DO NOT DISAPPOINT ME. ......*angry authoritative face*

fundraising etc

2008-09-17T18:10:00.006-04:00

Alright. I showed all of you a file that I had on my computer which I sent in to the Pine Views to have published. That file can be found here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?lzxemeoybcu

I think I may need to edit it in order for it to be appropriate to distribute to businesses, so let me know what you think I need to say. Julien and Andrew, if you want to try your hand at writing something, feel free, cause you know the club's history fairly well (I think...).

If you do decide to take this file unedited and distribute it, PLEASE PLEASE comment this post so everyone can know where we have asked for donations already. Something tells me that three different people bringing the same thing in and asking for donations from the same company isn't going to go over very well. SO:

Comment with where you gave the flyer to, the date you contacted the company, who you spoke with (get a business card if you can), and give an approximate amount that you think they will donate. If you don't know, say you don't know.

Other than that, I was pleased with the participation at the meeting, but still, some people aren't saying much. I want everyone to participate. Next week, I promise we'll get into some of the details about designing stuff. I want everyone to think up a 15 lb design, and WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER! If there's anything you need to learn from this club, it is how to effectively and clearly convey your ideas on paper. You need to be able to draw a diagram or schematic or sketch, and have someone looking at be able to figure out what it is that you drew. If you scrawl some indecipherable scribble on a piece of paper and hand it to me like "here's my design" I'm gonna give it back to you and tell you to draw it better, or at least label things or explain it on the paper. I'm not gonna collect these, but i want everyone to stand up and present their design with Dr. Skipper's camera projector thingy (for those of you who have him, you know what I'm talking about), so I know you are all thinking and so you can learn how to present ideas. I'm not talking about a design where you tell me what motors you're gonna use, where they're gonna go, how much the thing's gonna weigh... Just a concept design is fine. However, if you fail to present one, know that YOUR GRADE WILL SUFFER! haha just kidding. But seriously, I will not be happy, and you will go on my bad list if you don't come up with something.

oh and I'm very impressed with the people who are beating me to the meetings. Last year, half the club didn't show up until 2:20 or so...

2nd meeting...

2008-09-10T16:52:00.003-04:00

So I showed pieces of the video that I edited from competition 2008. I want to know what you thought of it.... so leave comments. The only person who comments is Julien. I'm really only saying this so that I know who is ACTUALLY reading the blog. I want to make sure everyone checks this fairly regularly. Also, if you want to be added to an email list so that you get updated every time this blog is updated, leave a comment and I will add you to that list. Next meeting, I will be discussing fundraising ideas for most of the meeting. I want everyone to think of an idea to raise money, and talk about it next Tuesday. For now, I'm going to list a bunch of photos with bot names, and I want you to tell me what you think the strengths and weaknesses are. If you check this, and look at the bots, you'll have a huge advantage next week over those who don't, and I'll like you more. :P

Overlord

The Blender
(no it isn't that high off the ground - it's just up on a dolly)

Hercules
The lifter at the front can lift 200 lbs, the things on the back are saw blades.

Anklebiter
There IS Lexan armor, but only top and bottom. The back has aluminum plate armor.

Frostbite
The thresher at the front weighs 55 lbs.

Fairy Princess
Pneumatic lifter on the front, foam-filled non-pneumatic tires, titanium armor.

That should be enough for you to think about for now. And I just want to say that MIT's battlebots team in 1999 used magnetic wheels. Think about that, and we'll talk about it next week.
-Dan

EDDIE!

2008-09-07T22:29:00.003-04:00

So I've got good news. :]
Eddie is coming in on Tuesday because he doesn't have classes at USF.
We will talk more about the competition, maybe show some more entertaining video, and hopefully kind of settle into a meeting where i'm not just talking about a LOT of random things and distracting myself all over the place. As you can see, there's lots to talk about.

Copperhead is in my garage, ready to go into my trunk on tuesday - only it's in pieces. I'm not gonna put it together, because we're actually missing a few brackets and things that got damaged during competition, so I'm going to bring it in as is. But it will be interesting so you all can see how much things weigh, what everything feels like, what it does, and how everything needs to be in order for the bot to work. When it's put together, it's fairly obvious - "oh, well of course this goes there" - but as a pile of parts, it's far less obvious why things have to fit together the way they do, yknow? I promise I won't go into the super technical stuff yet... I'm sure that will come as we're designing our new bot.

Connor, Kate, and Kyle won't be there, but everyone else should be.

first meeting

2008-09-03T21:08:00.003-04:00

I said I would use this to discuss what transpires at meetings, so...
the first meeting went fairly well, i thought.. I kinda rambled like I normally do...
I showed videos and photos, and started thinking engineering, talked about competition(s) and commitment requirements. I gave out a handout - please bring it back with your name and grade and email address on it so I know who you are.
Good to see several new members. I counted six or seven. It makes me hopeful for the continuation of the club after I graduate.
Hopefully Dr. Skipper's projector will let everyone see things a little better next week. I know Kyle won't be present, but I expect everyone else to be there. Cole said he had a physical, so he missed the first meeting, but he told me he would be there for the second.
I AM BRINGING COPPERHEAD next week. Be prepared. I will be talking about components and how things work, so prepare yourselves for a lot of information you will need to learn. Don't freak out if you don't get it at first, because it will be constantly discussed, but do make an effort to learn and memorize some of the things I talk about.

PLEASE leave me comments and tell me what you thought of the first meeting... so I can see if there's anything I should try to improve for next week. Having the bot physically there should help, but I know I can always improve my meetings...

and I'll be on time next week. :P

First Meeting is OFFICIALLY...

2008-08-27T15:46:00.007-04:00

Okay. The first Engineering Club meeting is OFFICIALLY next tuesday, September 2nd, 6th period, NOT in Dr. Skipper's room. Dr. Skipper has a faculty meeting, so the meeting will be held in portable 5, Mr. Schweig's room. Don't worry, Dr. Skipper is still our class sponsor, and future meetings WILL be held in his room. I talked to Eddie a few days ago, and it doesn't look like he's going to be able to come and join us for any of our meetings. His college schedule just doesn't quite let him get down here before 3...
Dr. Skipper told me that the ideal meeting schedule for him is going to be 6th period on Tuesdays. This is the same as last year's schedule, and works for me. All of last year's members should know the routine too, so I am going to put it in writing *gasp* that our meeting schedule is going to be (almost) every Tuesday, 6th pd. Dr Skipper's room.
The first two meetings are intro meetings for ALL members (old members please come too). We will be playing video from last year's competition, and showing photos, and talking about the club. It will be kind of fun, I hope.

THE SECOND/THIRD MEETING IS MANDATORY for all members who wish to be a part of the club.

I will be taking attendance, and if you don't show, I will assume you aren't interested. And then, depending on the attendance for the first two meetings - if it's low, we'll continue intro stuff during the third meeting as well - the next meeting we'll start right up with engineering. I'm going to take it slow (not diving head-first into battlebots, per se), so old members PLEASE don't get impatient. If for some reason you are not going to be able to attend a meeting, please email me so I don't wait for you and waste time. I am going to run the club like a varsity sport. Three missed meetings (not including builds) and you won't be able to go to competition. An "oops, I forgot" isn't going to fly this year, because the club needs committed members in order to achieve its goals. It is also going to be somewhat class-like, so be prepared to learn, take notes, and even quizzes! (There are just certain things you NEED to know...)

on a different note, the motor brushes, caps, and insulators that I ordered came in today. If you don't know what they are, then you'll find out next week!

And anyone who went to Miami last year is going to get two cd's of photos and a printed 8x10 photo of the team. I am also going to see if the office wants to put an 8x10 of the team with our trophies in the display case... I think that will be a good legacy for Eddie and Vince - forever memorialized in a photo by a trophy in the front office. :]

Carbon Fiber?

2008-08-22T10:42:00.002-04:00

So we all know carbon fiber is light. And strong. But I didn't know it was strong enough for our purposes. Apparently it is, and would probably be a good candidate for Copperhead's battery mounts and possibly even the weapon motor mounts. I will discuss this at our first meeting. This is available at robot marketplace, 1x1 L-bracket for $32 a foot. It is 0.17 oz per inch, and is twice as strong as a CD - slightly thicker (0.060") and at least twice as rigid. However...

ATTENTION: Due to recent International carbon shortages, our carbon fiber products may take up to 14 days to manufacture. This is an industry-wide delay. Be assured that we are handling all orders as quickly as possible. Because of this shortage, we encourage you to place your order with plenty of lead-time. We apologize for any inconvenience.

wheels!

2008-08-20T18:35:00.008-04:00

The tires we ordered for Copperhead from Sunray Polyurethane Products came in today. They are made from an ultra high durometer polyurethane rubber bonded to an aluminum ring. Each weighs 2.35 lbs, which, when combined with the hub we need to make, is significantly heavier than the wheels we used last year, but they feel significantly stronger. The rubber is quite hard, and with the right wheel design (that will hopefully include a titanium frontplate) the wheels should prove to be indestructible. The biggest challenge now is not to design the wheels, but to compensate for the weight gain. We have two extra in case something happens in competition - it was far cheaper per tire to buy four than two.

In other news, I talked with Mrs. Fisher today, and she said that she's been busy, but will send out the P.O. for the motor brushes and caps before the end of the week. I need to call Robot Marketplace and ask if they will ship before receiving the P.O. - they've had the online order for over two weeks now, I believe.

I am thinking not next week, but the week after for our first meeting. I need to call Eddie because I know he wanted to come in to talk about the competition and the club, and talk to Dr. Skipper and find out when his room is available, and that will determine when the meeting will take place. If you are interested, please email me (guiswim7391@yahoo.com) and I will let you know when the meeting is for sure if I don't see you on campus.

And apparently, Mrs. Abrams has taken an interest in the club, so we need to report everything that was discussed in the meetings to her. If someone wants the job of recording everything that was said in the meeting, let me know. This is a GOOD thing... it means we are finally getting the attention of administration. :]

Copperhead's Status...

2008-08-13T18:15:00.008-04:00

Today I gleefully added the carcass of Copperhead 2 that had been rusting away in my garage to the scrap metal pile that has been accumulating in my trunk, ready to be taken over to Scrap-All. You can see how bent and beat up it looks (and is!) - and from only two battles. Yeahhh... we don't really like to talk about 2007...

This photo shows the battery mount bracket - full of holes and covered in black duct tape - which we need to eventually replace. It is not high on our list of priorities as it withstood last year's competition fairly well, but I think we should aim for something more durable than 6061 aluminum that is full of holes. Weight is still an issue, since every repair I've made has added something to the 120.4 lbs we squeaked into competition last year.

These show the four new front corner support posts I fabricated last week. They weigh .47 lbs more than the old ones did, with screws, but the screws need to be shortened by over half an inch. Overall, I think we can take some weight out of these by drilling holes through their centers as well. The mounting system is slightly different than last year's round post with a screw through it and floating nut inside the frame tubes. They are secured by two 5/16 - 18 button-head screws, one is the same as the inside front corner of the gearbox, the other fitting into a slot milled into the front of the supports so that the hole spacing discrepancies can be accounted for. I also ordered plain steel nuts (not stainless or galvanized) to weld to the inside of the frame tube so we don't have a floating nut.

The wheels were the main casualty of last year's competition, requiring serious welding TWICE - they practically disintegrated. We knew going into the competition that they were our weak point as they were exposed, and made from cast aluminum, but this year, we have already purchased 9 inch high strength polyurethane tires bonded to aluminum rings that we need to fabricate a wheel around. Ideally, I am hoping for a thick aluminum plate CNC milled so it's got a solid backside, but spokes around a hub on the other, and a titanium front plate to cover the entire wheel. I will add a blueprint once I have it drawn. The 4 tires (2 extras) we bought were a little over $600 total cost, fronted by my dad, Jeff. I'm hoping for it to be reimbursed out of our school account once our fundraising is under way... the material and machining cost for the rest of the wheels looks like it will bring total wheel cost up to near $1000. They should ship friday (monday at the latest) and I'll get my wheel design done asap so I can check WHEELS off the Copperhead list. The other thing that needs to get done that is vitally important to getting Copperhead functional again is the motor bracket mount, which I'm going to make out of the extra chrome-moly tubing we had left over, and weld it to the existing tabs from last year's aluminum mounts. That will definitely be the next thing I do...

For now, I'm going to see what happens once school starts. Meetings are likely to be tuesdays, 6th period in Dr. Skipper's room, but I don't know for sure. Definitely no meeting first week of school, but check back here later for our meeting schedule.

Summer's End

2008-08-12T12:41:00.005-04:00

The 2008 team (from top left, clockwise):
Cole Eisenberg (9), Julien Kuzniarek (10), Andrew Lum (10), Justin Bounds (11), Vincent Baiamonte (12), Dan Curhan (11), Eddie Burgess (12)

The 2008 Pine View Engineering Club team placed first in the 120 lb high school division of the national BotsIQ competition in May with their bot Copperhead 3. Fighting against well-funded, well-organized teams with formalized engineering/robotics curricula and experienced faculty advisers, the Pine View team battled its way to the top of the winner's bracket, defeating Matador, Fairy Princess, Trent, Rigor Mortis, and finally Knightrous. As the only undefeated bot remaining, they lost one match to Oddbott 3.5, but came back with a vengeance and won. For a video highlighting the competition, visit youtube.

Team captain and club president Eddie Burgess graduated, along with Vincent Baiamonte, and their help will be sorely missed.

As summer 2008 draws to a close, national champion Copperhead 3 is being repaired. It did not take any significant damage during competition last year to anything but the wheels - which are being replaced. I am hoping to have it finished by Thanksgiving. I have taken all the components out, and I am cleaning the bearings and straightening what needs to be straightened, and I am redesigning certain parts that could be better. I have already finished fabricating new support posts for the front corners, to stop the drum from hitting the ground, and next time I go out to build I will take photos. School hasn't started yet, so I don't know what the 2009 team will be like, but I am excited for the best.