Monday, May 24, 2010

Sumobot Competition Debrief

Competition

Good:
  • Screens (two big ones)
  • Lots of help
  • Student run
  • MC was excellent
  • More success
  • Organized
  • Went fast
  • Added challenge with the Engineers



Bad:
  • MC needs to annnounce the winners!
  • Music needs to be more background orientated
  • On Deck/In the Hole competitors did not sit in front or did not hear announcement
  • Better labels for chairs
  • Rules: Button pushing needs to be clearer
  • Ref. needs to identify "outlaw" bots and insure they win twice against legal bots
  • Bracket program needs better size text and colors
  • Insure brackets are random (random button)
  • More soldering stations
  • Going against engineers
  • Need more schools
  • Double elimination would be good

Sumobots In General

  • Start talking about it earlier
  • Make some assignments homework; design, solder practice, knowing the parts
  • Use Digikey bidding process
  • Follow up on PO religiously (treasurer)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Wheels

5/17
  • Discuss use of tape for a body, advantages/disadvantages
  • Wire wrap tool
5/14

Two places for wheels:




Need an decent O-scope (or frequency counter).



Check out ERLE: Oscilloscope



5/11 - From Vern V.

  • OCR2 = (clock/output_freq) – 1

  • …we subtract 1 because the count actually starts at zero. So my initial value should have been 209. That formula also only works if the prescale is 1. Otherwise it would be:

  • OCR2 = (clock/prescale/output_freq) - 1


5/10 - From Vern V.



Prescale is just a way to get around the fact that you can only count so highwith an 8 bit regist4er. The prescaler diveds the clock frequency down to a more manageable number.







5/10 - From Vern V.



Config Portb = Output



Config Portd = &B0001000



Config Portc = &B0000000



Config Pinb.3 = Output



'Config Clock = Soft





Config Timer2 = Counter , Compare = Toggle , Prescale = 1 '<<<<<>





Timer2_ir Alias Tccr2.0





'config timer2 (8 bit, CTC mode, 1:1 clock, toggle pin every 106 cycles)



Set Tccr2.3



'Ocr2 = 106



Ocr2 = 210 ' 8MHz/38KHz = 210.5 <<<<>







Enable Interrupts



Enable Compare1a



' Rename some pins for easier reading



Switch Alias Pind.0



Irleds Alias Portb.3



Leftline Alias Pinc.3



Rightline Alias Pinc.4



Leftir Alias Pinc.2



Rightir Alias Pinc.0



Frontir Alias Pinc.1



Led1 Alias Portb.4



Led2 Alias Portb.2



Led3 Alias Portb.1



Led4 Alias Portb.0





5/8 - From Gordon A.



To enter test mode, hold down start button then turn on both switches of SW2





5/7 - From Shane S.



Sub Detect(res As Byte)



Dim I As Integer



Res = 0



For I = 0 To 101



Toggle Irleds



' depending on how much code there is, adjust the following to make the IR



' pulse 38khz, plus/minus 1khz - the farther away the pulse timing is from



' 38khz, the worse the range



Waitus 3



'Waitus 4





If Frontir = 0 Then



Res.2 = 1



Res.0 = 0



Res.1 = 0



Exit Sub



End If



If Rightir = 0 Then



Res.0 = 1



Res.1 = 0



Res.2 = 0



Exit Sub



End If



If Leftir = 0 Then



Res.1 = 1



Res.0 = 0



Res.2 = 0



Exit Sub



End If



Next



End Sub






5/7 From Nathan P.





“I just spent a few minuets looking at the circuit and the code you sent me and here is what I remember from when I built the hunterbot.

The Ocr2 = 106 line is how many clock cycles it between toggling the line out.

When I was trouble shooting mine i had to tune that number in order to get the freq just right. There are a few different reasons why it is different between bot to bot. But it is made to be changed and played with in order to get the right freq out per bot. If I remember correctly I had mine working the best at around 103, The smaller the number the higher the freq out.

So my suggestion would be first to try to measure the freq out, the receivers work the best around 38 khz.
But since he doesn't have a way to measure that I would try to a range of +-10 untill they the recievers start firing.”





Tuesday, April 13, 2010

2010 Bot Shop

Photos of the Bot Shop

Friday, March 26, 2010

Sumobots Update

FYI regarding the latest on Sumobots:

1. Bri Palmer, Kamiakin Student, has taken on hosting the Sumobot competition as her culminating project this year. She made a proposal to the instructors and CTE director last week. Her next step is to recruit students and volunteers to help with the many parts of the project.

2. We had the competition date narrowed down to May 17, however have a conflict with the evening before when we would be setting up for the competition. We are trying to work around this presently.

3. Kamiakin’s Bot Shop is Saturday April 10, 9:00am - 2pm.

4. You are welcome to participate. Our goal for the Bot Shop is to complete soldering on the PCBs. Help will be needed in observing students using correct soldering technique, answering questions regarding component position, and possibly some troubleshooting.

I will also be updating the KamiakinTech blog periodically so you may want to add it to your feed burner.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

More on Logo Contest


Here is the response from Gesa regarding our questions:


"Yes, we will resize. Any shape is fine. Print friendly.

If our marketing dept can come in and speak we will have examples. Take a look at our website. Go to Youth, and high school branches. You will see the other school logo’s."


Here's a link to the Gesa web site with examples of other school logos. Click Here

I've added two Kamiakin logos from which to create the logo on our P:\readonly\hoglen\kamiakin_logos

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Extra Credit Logo

For those of you who are ahead, need extra credit, or just want a challenge; test your design skills with the Gesa Logo Contest. There are prizes! Plus extra credit!

Click on the following link to view the contest requirements.

Geisa Logo Contest (.pdf)

Points

Completing this extra credit will afford you one of two choices:

This can take the place of a Photo Assignment from the current semester,

OR

Receive up to 25 insurance points for future assignments for 4th quarter. Insurance points can be used in part or in whole toward fixing an assignment grade which you would like to improve. Bump that "C" to an "A"!

Specs
Canvas size = ? X ? (we're checking on this)
Resolution = 300 pixels/inch

This is EXTRA CREDIT! You may work on this in class only after you have completed other assignments. If you have graphic software at home or access outside of class, you can, of course, work on it on your own time.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

2010 Bot Shop

Preparation

  1. Jan-Feb: Ordered and received all parts except R1 which we believe can be jumped with wire
  2. Ordered soldering supplies: Wire (20 & 22 ga), soldering tips, Solder (.032 50/50 and .022 silver)
  3. 2/24: Prepared soldering stations in 313 - card board, "HOT!" signs, outlets, extension cords, fixed soldering iron tips
  4. 3/8: Began soldering practice - Jacobs' (Steve) Ladder
  5. 3/17: Reserved Jerry's Room