Intake Stuff
With the wrist unable to lift a game piece, the wrist pulley blocking the middle of the intake from being used, and the pulleys on the wrist power transfer falling off frequently, things are looking grim. Citrus has never been this far from a competitive robot heading into an event.
In order to open up the middle of the intake, we're biting the bullet and moving the intake motor into the wrist plate instead of back on the carriage with the wrist motor. It's going to make our CG higher and the intake heavier, but at this point we're out of options.
In order to open up the middle of the intake, we're biting the bullet and moving the intake motor into the wrist plate instead of back on the carriage with the wrist motor. It's going to make our CG higher and the intake heavier, but at this point we're out of options.
Elevator Stuff
The rope is having some issues staying on track and spooling nicely, and the elevator isn't all that rigid side-to-side. We need to come up with some fixes.
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To fix the play in the elevator, we added some reinforcement plates to the front and bottom of the base and first stages of the elevator.
Author's note: The screenshots below are from post-season. I think the bottom plates might have gone on after Hueneme?
Author's note: The screenshots below are from post-season. I think the bottom plates might have gone on after Hueneme?
To fix the rope rubbing, we moved from a bolt into the drum to a high strength rivet instead, which sits flush and doesn't snag on anything.
Electrical Stuff
Comp's wiring is... okay, but Beta's wiring is truly bad. We made the decision to fully re-wire the machine. While the elevator and intake changes were being made, Rohan and the hardware electrical team measured and pre-cut every wire on the robot. As soon as the new intake was on, they stripped and replaced every single wire.
Every. Single. Wire.
The new wiring is the nicest that has ever been on a 1678 robot. Turns out that electrical is an iterative process as well, who would have thought?
Every. Single. Wire.
The new wiring is the nicest that has ever been on a 1678 robot. Turns out that electrical is an iterative process as well, who would have thought?
Mentor Built
The night of 2/28 was the only time in the 2023 season that the Citrus mentors had to get their hands dirty building. With the robot still incomplete by the end of the meeting, we couldn't justifiably keep the kids in the shop all night on a Tuesday. The coaches stepped in to make up some time. We had a small punchlist of items, including re-riveting the bellypan on with more high strength rivets, finishing installation of the elevator end-plates, tapping some holes in Falcon shafts, and tying down some last few wires. People often wonder how much hands-on work the mentors are doing on "good teams," and this was it for us this season.
The Robot
With Beta's beautiful new wiring, we decided that Comp would sit out for the first event, and Beta would play at CAPH instead. Is a comp that doesn't play at competition still "comp"? Who knows. Regardless, Beta is finally ripping some fast cycles. Here is a 12 game piece practice match (counting auto).
Ship It
4414 posted a dope reveal video and we're stealing their format. This took like 30 tries, but we eventually got it clean enough to post. Beta was packed up immediately after filming, and we headed down south to Ventura. There are some serious powerhouses at this event, and we've only been competition ready for two days. Confidence is low, tension is high, but all we can do from here is our best.