Today we presented a variety of options to the entire team and are getting feedback from each member about which activities they are most interested in doing this season. The options include the challenges that are given to us as part of the 2021 FRC seasons and activities that we can to internal to our team. Here the slides that were presented today.
https://photos.spectrum3847.org/2021-FRC/2021-Activity-Plans/
- Spectrum
“Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in.” - Brené Brown
2021 Survey Results & Plans
We surveyed the team to see which activities and events they prioritized.
From that data, we started laying out a plan for how we will progress with the season.
FRC Resources of the Month - Jan 2021 - OnShape
There are numerous resources for FRC teams published all the time. So much so it's hard to keep track of them all. We keep a nice collection of them on our website resources.spectrum3847.org and maintain it as much as possible, but it's still a lot to process, and it's not easy to see when new items get added or old items removed.
We wanted to start a new series to highlight resources that we find useful. For the next few months, we will highlight a few broad categories of resources, and then hopefully, we can use this platform to highlight new resources as they come out in the future.
Our Resources of the Month for January 2021 will be those created to help the FRC community better use the OnShape CAD software.
We need to thank PTC and the developers of OnShape for sponsoring FIRST and allowing every FRC student and mentor access to OnShape for free. OnShape is a 3D modeling CAD (Computer-Aided Design) program that runs entirely in the browser. It's been perfect for many teams who are meeting remotely as it can run on nearly any computer or tablet.
Our FRC community has created a host of resources that allow teams to quickly and easily get started using OnShape to help their team.
OnShape4FRC
www.OnShape4FRC.comwas created by Max Westwater, Dave Powers, Jack Tervay, and FRC#6328.
This website makes getting started with OnShape super simple for teams and is one of the sites we link to our beginning students. With an excellent getting started page and links and how to post about many of the resources we will highlight below, this page is a one-stop-shop for anyone looking to get started using OnShape on their FRC team.
MKCad
Julia's Featurescripts
You can find her scripts here and add them to your OnShape toolbar. Besides being amazing at programming these tools, her blazingly fast response time to feature requests is even more unbelievable. This nearly 200 post CD thread catalogs the scripts' evolution over the past year and a half.
Spectrum has started using OnShape this season, and we have been documenting what we learn as well. Our resources aren't nearly as useful as those above, but you are still looking for more, check out our in-progress OnShape Resources document and look at our YouTube channel for tutorials.
“If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.” - Frank Chimero
Gamma Ray 2021: Build Blog
With the bulk of the FRC at Home challenge work completed, we have begun work on designing a new robot for 2021 off-season events: Gamma Ray 2021. It is still in the early stages of its design, but we wanted to allow people to follow its progress.
- In the fall of 2020, we decided to register a 2nd FRC team at our schools, Photon FRC#8515. This team will be the "Development Team" for Spectrum. The general plan is new students will be on Photon but will also be members of Spectrum at the same time.
- The plan is for this new robot to compete under the banner of Photon at The Texas Cup event.
- We have been kicking around the ideas for this robot since March 2020, but the actual CAD didn't get started until last week. We didn't build or modify our 2020 robot for the skills challenges; we just used it as is.
- Spectrum has switched from Solidworks to OnShape, so it will be easier for anyone to view the robot's progress.
- Most of the build blog updates for this will be the design slides our team uses to organize our thoughts and keep everyone updated. The full design slide set will be uploaded to our photo gallery.
- One of the major goals of this robot was to design and build a full swerve robot before the 2022 season. If you haven't heard, there will likely be a lot of new swerve teams in 2022.
Gamma Ray 2021: Week 2
Awards
Spectrum was recognized as one of the FIRST in Texas District Chairman’s Award teams. We had one of our students from 3847 and one of our students from 8515 advance to the District Champions Dean’s List round.
Congratulations to all the teams
Subsystem Updates
OnShape Feature Scripts
Here are some of the feature scripts we have been using on this robot to help us generate parts faster.
Laser Joint
Creates the finger joints that we often use with laser cut parts
T-Slot Joint
Adds nut slots and holes to Laser Joints
Advanced Gear
- Creates Spur, Helix, and Double Helix gears
Shaped Flange
- Allows you to make a flange from a sketch profile, and can also offset the flange easily so you can make “Bend Outside” parts nicely.
Gamma Ray 2021: Week 3 & 4
This has been a much slower build. We are only meeting in person on weekends and CAD development has slowed as students prepare for AP tests.
In Week 3 we were able to get our new router setup to drill hole patterns in tubes and used our laser cutter to cut our belly pan.
In Week 4 we were able to add electronics and mounting to our practice drive train and get it wired up.
Spectrum Fall Training
Our weekly schedule
Discord Virtual Sessions
- Tue 8pm Design/Mechanical Training
- Thur 8pm Controls/Strategy Training
- Bi-Weekly Wed 8pm - Awards Meeting
- Monthly 3rd-Wed 8pm - Team Progress Meeting
Small-group sessions
- Usually: Fri 3:30-6, Sat 1-3:30, Sat 3:30-6, Sun 1-3:30
FIRST Friday Fun
- Fun activities that we do once a month to give students a chance to get to know each other and learn.
Sessions we have had so far this year.
Training
- D1.1 Overview of FRC Robots - Video - Slides
- D1.2 Intro to CAD (OnShape) - Videos - Slides
- D1.3 FRC OnShape MKCad - Featurescripts - Video 2020 - Slides
- C1.2 Intro to FRC Control System - Video - Slides
- C1.4 Intro to Pneumatics - Video - Slides
- C1.1 Intro to Java Programming - Video - Slides
- A1.1 Intro to FRC Awards - Slides
Small-Group Sessions
FIRST Friday Fun
Week of 9/20/21 Recap
Here is a recap of this past week's meetings and training.
This Week
Weeks of 9/27 and 10/4
Week of 9/27
- 9/28 - Mechanical Training - Discord - 8 pm - Exploration of the FRC Kit Drivetrain - Video - Slides
- 9/29 - Spectrum Supporters/Parents Meeting - 8 pm to 9 pm - Virtual - Presentation
Week 0f 10/4
- Oct 5th - Mechanical Training - Discord - 8 pm - Beginner Swerve Drive - Video - Slides- Oct 6th - Awards Meeting - Chairman's Executive Summary
- Oct 7th - Controls Training - Discord - 8 pm - Intro to VEX IQ Sumo Robots and Programming - Slides
- Oct 8th, 3 pm to 6 pm and 9th 1 pm to 8 pm - FIRST Friday VEX IQ Sumo Robots at Strake
- Houston Food Bank Volunteering Oct 11th - 12:30 to 5 pm - Photos
