Vex Robotics Forum

Welcome everyone - feel free to post your thoughts and comments here.

We had the following to-do items on our list,
a) locate the whereabouts of the equipment, software, laptops, thumbdrives, etc
- At Tecumseh
b) modify the programming to eliminate binary control of the motor speeds/direction
- NOT Doable with the standard kit
I will have to investigate what the larger programming suite provides for options.
c) purchase additional Vex crystal
- Found "A" kits on Ebay for about $15 for 4 crystals but I'm having a tough time finding "B" kits less than $50

just got a reply from an Ebay seller that he has both - negotiating a price
- I picked up 4 A kits for about $50 in total which will give us 4 teams of 5 so long as the teams don't get too close to each other.
- All 4 A kits have arrived.
- I'm still waiting to find B kits at a reasonable price.

d) investigate if ordinary crystals can be used to expand the available frequencies
- Cannot be done easily-
e) inquiring about available funds to purchase additional accessories (vision system, pneumatics system, etc)
- $500 left and Roger said it is available -

- I've also kicked around the idea of having the kids create letters to corporations for donations as a literature lesson -
f) inquire about purchasing tool boxes to house the equipment in a more permanent fashion
- I've looked into it and come up with the following, waiting to hear other ideas,
Large Toolbox
Individual Toolbox
Sears Large Toolbox - go to Sears.com - Item # 00959096000
-

• I've also thought about asking Walmart to donate as they have generous donation programs and toolboxes similar to the Individual Toolbox
• I've written a letter and delivered it to Walmart in W. Laf to see if they could help us out with the purchase of the equipment. They have nice B&D toolboxes which will store the equipment pretty well.
• Walmart has some boxes like those referred to by the Additional Storage 1 links below for $3-$4 so we should be taken care of for storage space

g) inquire about the missing parts of the original box that was sent over (remote control, wheels, etc)
- They should be at our school -
h) find a place to store the materials and create some sort of check-out system for the materials
- The teacher got together on 12/7/06 and have found a place for them in a science room-
i) contact MEs at Purdue as a resource for future years. I know Dr. Chiu well enough and I'm thinking of creating a link between Tecumseh and Purdue so that Prof. Chiu and Prof. Meckl can have their students make themselves available to teach the programming when I'm not around.
- I received the following response from Dr. Meckl Purdue's ME department,
Nino,
It's good to hear from you.

I will be teaching ME 586 Microprocessors next semester, so it would be
natural to ask the TA and any interested students if they would like to
participate. In addition, of course, I would be available for help as well.

This sounds like a nice project to get involved in.

Regards,
Peter Meckl -

• I received some emails today about the preference of the forum as opposed to the google document system so long as anybody can post here. Brian informed me that there is a setting to allow anybody to post so it should be taken care of now. Feel free to try and post.


• Emails went back and forth today regarding the purchase of either toolbox for each kit or a toolchest for them all. It appears that the majority prefers individual toolboxes with a large cart on which to store the toolboxes. It was pretty neat to see everyone get creative with solutions.


• Indra and Arianne came up with the idea of putting pictures of the items on the toolboxes to make it easier for the kids to find where things go.


• Andrea will get the kids to make the labels for the toolboxes.


• Roger informed us that there are files at Vexlab to get visuals of the equipment and I've posted the following links (there may be others)
  
  Vex labs printout 1
  CAD Files
  

The pros/cons fell out like this,

Pros for individual toolbox
- each unit is self-contained with the proper amount of bolts, nuts, and tools in their own compartments
- individual accountability - might take longer checking them back in
- each student group knows which box is their based on a numbering system
- potentially easier if a small group wants to work on things

Cons for individual toolbox
- more boxes to store
- the students would have to come down to check them out

Pros for the toolchest
- easier checkout system - 1 big chest/unit to check out
- easier to maneuver and handle the logistics
- potentially easier if a large group wants to work on them

Cons for toolchest
- we'll have to buy some additional accessories to organize the bits
- no individual accountability for the kids when things go missing
- problematic if two classes wanted to work on them together
- might create a lot of foot traffic in the class as opposed to students having all their resources in front of them

Each of the following will fit in the toolbox but I have not checked to see if Walmart carries them but they give you an idea of what we might be looking for.

Additional storage 1
Additional storage 2

I just got off the phone with Walmart in W. Laf and they have the boxes shown in the Storage 1 link above for about $3/pc in their fish & tackle section so this is shaping up nicely.

A slow Friday night for me...(nothing unusual really)...so I thought I'd check out the forum. Seems like Nino's got it under control.

Looks like a nice journal of recent emails and activity. What do you think Menon?

LOL, that makes 2 of us. I'm guessing Menon wants more e-mails? Menon, you'll need to speak up to stop the flood ;-).

I'm going to give Walmart a buzz tomorrow to see if they've made any progress and the crystals should be in next week or the week after. We'll need to decide on whether we want to buy the more expensive B version of the crystal kit ($50/4 channels).

I'd also like to discuss purchasing some of the more "fun" add-ons like the pneumatics kit, the vision kit, distance sensors, etc.

We could do some really creative things with these kits.