FIRST Team 1915: 2013

I will use this post to publish links to the more technical FIRST FRC information which has been published on the web.

Team 358 has a very good website for technical information. Their pneumatic information is particularly good.

FRC Designs. Submissions from multiple teams from the past several years.

I will update this post from time to time.

Monday, September 30, 2013

Non-Engineers Mentor Organization (NEMO)

One objective for the team is to increase the number of adult mentors working with the team. Please keep in mind that someone does not need to be an engineer in order to be a huge help to the team! In fact, there is a whole organization, the Non-Engineering Mentors Organization, NEMO, dedicated to helping and networking non-engineering mentors for FIRST.

You can contact the NEMO leaders for friendly help and advice.

Jim Grove

Monday, September 23, 2013

Chairman's Award Video Playlist

Compilation of Regional Chairman's Award videos. Many won their RCA; a few won at Championships.

Again, a lot of videos in this playlist. But it is useful for the team to see the high quality evident in videos, as well as those activities involved to win.

Download the paper just posted to Chief Delphi, The Complete Guide to the FRC Chairman's Award.

Jim Grove

Reveal Videos Playlists

Here is a link to my personal playlists on YouTube of FIRST reveal videos. Lots of videos....way too many to actually watch in one sitting. But I put them here so that people might understand some of the mechanical techniques used to solve the FIRST competition challenges.

2014
2013
2012: (Reveals and several prototyping videos, too)
2011:
2010:
2009:
2008:
2007:

The playlists from the earlier years don't have many videos. Still, I think it is interesting to see how other teams solved the challenges in the games.

Here is a comprehensive playlist of video clips produced by various FIRST teams, highlighting teams and their 2013 robots. There are over 90 of them in the list.

The YouTube channel I've posted for Firebird videos.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Firebirds1915

Jim Grove

Sunday, September 22, 2013

2014 Software Downloads and Training

The previous post discussed FIRST specific control system components. This post will provide links to software downloads and training.

Autodesk Inventor (Computer Aided Design, or CAD) Download
1) Autodesk Inventor

2) Click on "Free Software" tab, and follow directions.
3) Autodesk has multiple software titles that you can download for free. All of it is great software. For now, just download Autodesk Inventor Professional 2014. Warning: The download is several GIGABITS. I recommend that you start it up, and simply leave it running for several hours, such as overnight.
4) Autodesk provides some training/learning material to get new users familiar with the software. Utilize them, and be sure to tell your teammates which ones you've found most useful for learning the software.

National Instruments LabView. For 2014, you can now download the FIRST version of Labview from the internet. The download is over 5 GB, so let it download overnight. You will need the authorization code from the KOP, so see a team mentor for that code.
NI Links for Downloads, Training, Forums***** NEW FOR 2014!*****

Other NI LabView training links, not FRC specific:
NI suggested training.
FRC Mastery

Hardware manual for cRIO FRC II.

You probably won't need this hardware manual, but it is listed here to be complete.

Jim Grove
FIRST is not rocket science. But it is like drinking from a fire hose.

2013 Basic FIRST Hardware

This blog is meant to discuss general training items for FIRST robotics teams. While it is focused primarily on the McKinley Tech Firebirds, it could be useful for anyone.

With the large number of Freshmen on our team for 2014, we need to start with the basics. FIRST has some training materials on their website, usfirst.org, under FRC, Resources.

While you could look over every link in the system, many of these are step by step directions on how to load software or configure hardware. (Useful, but confusing to someone not very familiar with the systems.)

Start with the hardware overview.
The hardware overview is very important, because it shows you a picture of every component, and a very brief description of its function. Every member of the team should know the name and function of all 15 items this overview.

Getting Started with the 2013 Control System
is training put out by WPI.

Training manual on wiring each component of the FIRST control system.

Technical manual on the status lights of FIRST components
These lights tell you something about what the control component/system is doing, and can give important clues for troubleshooting.

Some interesting items, which could help the team troubleshoot drive system problems!

A good manual on Pneumatics

The three documents I mention above are an excellent place to start learning about FIRST. In future potst, I plan to cover how to get Autodesk Inventor, a very good Computer Aided Design program, on your computer, and some very good tutorials from National Instruments on programming the FIRST control system in LabView. I plan to include object detection and identification using a camera and the LabView software.

Jim Grove