DEWBOT VI IRI Problems Encountered

Problems Encountered

On the up side, there are 78 teams at this competition, which means we often have over an hour in between matches. On the rather less elevated side, we often have work to do in that time.

Losing Communication (Persistent)

This pretty much sucks. Though we've determined that we can connect the DS to the robot through the wireless in the pit, we sometimes (though thankfully not even more often) flicker the connection on and off on the competition field FMS. It's even worse on the practice field, when we have to tether. Part of this can be attributed to a loose Ethernet connection due to a bad port on the Classmate. We need to repair or replace that--sooner rather than later (though we'll have time enough after IRI). Secondary issue: we don't know what the diagnostic error messages mean. Ben to look up as full a list as possible Friday night.

Contact: Ben, Foster for technical. Carly, Sasha, Clem, Siri for observed instances.

Auto-Fire (Matches 7-15+?)

To everyone's continued bewilderment, the kicker fired on it's own in teleop (though ironically, not often in autonomous) for our first several matches. It's not in the code. It's not in the specs. It doesn't happen on the practice field. Fortunately, it's sometimes a pretty smart auto-fire, kicking only when Carly is in line with the goal. This is actually because she lines up slightly away from the ball and then inches forward--apparently almost exactly the correct distance. Unfortunately, the operative word is "almost". Even at its best it actually kicks just short of contact, making the arcs rather anemic. Oddly though, in Match 15(?), "almost" turned into "nowhere near". We're still not really sure what happened, but we seemed to regain control by at least Match 57. Be nice to know, though.

Contacts: Carly, Sasha, Clem, Siri, Ben. Paul also consulted with understandably little enlightenment.

Hackensack Death Grip

We worn down the standard consumables on the Hi/Lo Possessor, making our death grip rather less grippy (deathy?). We switch everything pretty easily, though the Grip-All rubber band didn't work out so well. We do have issues finding the correct replacement friction tape, but we should have enough to make it through.

Contacts: Clem, Siri, Doug, Matt, Sasha, Andrew.

Lo Bar Actuation

One on the cylinders on Lo Possessor Bar was bent. It took us a bit to discover, but we did replace it. The left stop also fell out once and over-loosened once more. We also managed to twist the upper rollers, which is probably what caused the Lo Bar to slip and make us eat a ball in Match 67. We added stops to the outsides of both rolling 80/20 struts. This seems to have improved things. Oddly, we also managed to completely rub down the friction tape on the bottom side of the Lo Bar. This is interesting, considering it's physically impossible for the bottom of the bar to hit flat ground before a significant portion of the 80/20 struts bottoms (like 3/16"-ish).

Solution: Tapped shaped top caps to hold the stops at the right height, and polycarbonate spacers to hold the rollers parallel and at the correct distance. In the future we should probably pay more attention to this. 80/20 is great for sliding things on, unfortunately, that makes it reasonably effective at letting things slide off.

Contacts: Clem, Siri, Doug, Matt.

Jammed Kicker (Match 32)

We could not get connection in the pit (this was before we learned the wireless trick) and thus had to start with only 80psig upstream pressure(the original minimum we were comfortable with). Unfortunately, that minimum was decided pre-Lo Possessor Bar. Come kicker relaxation, the much larger diameter kicker cocking cylinders start creeping back while the Lo Bar shoots up, and you have yourself a jam. Also unfortunately, we've removed the Lo Bar extend/retract override from our competition code (...but not our final specs). Solution: We'll fix that ASAP.

Contact: Sasha, Siri, Carly for observations. Ben for fix.

Kicker Bands

These came loose early in the day, but luckily that's easily fixable. They (namely the forth band) also proved abnormally difficult to replace Friday night. We managed though.

Contacts: Clem, Siri, Doug, Andrew, Matt, Sasha, Rita.

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Other pages about the DEWBOT VI Indiana Robotics Invitational

DEWBOT VI IRI Photo Gallery

DEWBOT VI IRI Scouting

DEWBOT VI IRI Matches

DEWBOT VI IRI Problems Encountered

DEWBOT VI IRI Trip Reports