Team Documents

Spartan Robotics team uses a bunch of documents to organize the team and design the robots. Some of these files require membership to the Google FRCTeam971 group to view. Contact Wyn Schuh to be added to this group.

Team Training Documents

Organization Documents

  • Team Leadership Structure - The team adopted this structure before the 2012/2013 school year and uses it to manage the team.
  • Team Rules and Expectations - This is a draft version.
  • Team 971 Member Contract - We require a signed contract for each team member.
  • 2012-2013 Team roster and web form to add new members.  Prior seasons: 2012 Rebound Rumble; 2011 Logo Moton
  • To help teams understand and implement the FIRST Safety Program, the FIRST created the FRIST Safety Manual.  It provides information on the FIRST Safety Awareness and Recognition Program.   Please read it to help you safely participate in the FRC program.  Instilling a culture of safety is a value that every individual in the FIRST community must embrace as we pursue FIRST’s mission and vision.  FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) has adopted safety as a core value and has established the framework for safety leadership in all aspects of the program. 
  • We have a permission slip that we may start using this season.  When it is used, this form should be printed, filled out, and returned to Wyn Schuh before a student can be an active member on the team.
  • FIRST requires that all participants (students and mentors) sign a 2013 FIRST Consent and Release form.  We use the FRC electronic Consent and Release form with is good for all 2013 FRC competition season events.  Students and their parents access the electronic form in STIMS and mentors acess the electronic form in TIMS.  Pages 1, 2, & 4 in the “Process Overview Document” describe the process for students and their parent approvers.   Returning mentors need to go to the TIMS site and use their username and password from last year to sign the 2013 release form.  New mentors need to click on the "create user account" button on the TIMS page. 
  • Sub-Team Leader expectations.
  • Purchasing: use the purchasing form to make a purchase request and/or record purchased items.  The Ordering Procedures page describes how to purchase items for the team.  Purchases require pre-approval if you want to be reimbursed using team funds.  Reimbursements for pre-approved purchases can be made by following the reimbursement directions.  Pre-approval requests are made by email to Wyn or Austin who will approve or deny the request or direct people to the Leadership Council.  Purchases can also be approved by the leadership council.
  • We use two EMail lists to keep the team informed.
  • Team Blog
  • Friday Dinner signup list -  As a team, we establish a dinner rotation for Friday nights during the build season to support our students and mentors as they work.  Friday is usually a long work day, starting right after school and going into the evening.  Contact Dorit Perry for details.
  • Students use the 971login Google application to log their hours for 2012 course credit.
  • Here is the process for adults to become authorized volunteers (also known as fingerprinted) so that they can supervise our team meetings.  We used to be able to use fingerprinted adults to supervise the team; however, last season, the school made us use school district employees.  Currently, Wyn, Michael, & Austin are the only school district employees that support the team.  We are working on obtaining permission for fingerprinted adults to again supervise without a school district employee being present.  Dec 10, 2011, Michael.
  • Adults must complete a MVLA School District Volunteer Driver Application and be approved as a volunteer driver to drive students for team related activities. The application process is described here.
  • Directions including a map for how to go with the 971 team to the NASA robotics lab.
  • The team programmers use Linux for code development.  Brian Silverman wrote this page that describes how to get started with FRC programming under Linux.
  • IT computer system computer list, system logs, and design document.
  • IT Routine Updates 

Programming Documents

  • There is a README in SVN that has instructions on creating a bootable flash drive for debugging the fitpc.
  • There is another README that has instructions on creating debian packages that allow building 32-bit software for the fitpc on a 64-bit development machine.

Robot Design Documents

2013

  • Game and Season Information from FIRST - has links to the Competition Manual, Team Updates, Kit of Parts, game Q & A, Awards, News and Email Blasts, and more.
  • Kick-Off videos, game video, and field tour videos.  Kit of Parts video.
  • FIRST has Weekly Email Blasts that are designed to keep you well informed on the latest FRC news.  They go out each Thursday for the FRC and are posted to the FRC Season News and Email Blasts page.  You can subscribe to an RSS feed to receive alerts when this page is updated.
  • FRC Blog is used by FIRST regularly for important updates. You can subscribe to an RSS feed to receive updates every time a new post is added.
  • 971 Rules Quiz:  To prepare for we want every student (definitely those on the scouting team) attending the competitions to complete this 971 Rules Quiz.  A passing grade is 100% (with unlimited retakes), and if you've read the game rules (available here), you should have no trouble attaining that.
  • SolidWorks Setup - We're using lances for routing wires.  They are bumps for running zip ties through.  The image shows the punch in red and the lance below.  The way to do that in Solidworks involves using a forming tool.  I am going to check in a folder for those in the solidworks templates folder.  In order to use it, you have to add "https://robotics.mvla.net/svn/frc971/2013/trunk/cad/971 Solidworks Templates/Forming Tools" (in your working copy) as a Design Library path (in System Options > File Locations).  If you don't do that, then the belly pan part won't open correctly.  
  • The 2013 software page describes how we set up the programming computers and robot code for the 2013 competition season.

2012 Rebound Rumble

2011 Logo Motion

  • The FIRST Links page has links to the game documents and other important links.
  • The Robot Parts List is used tracking which drawings need and have been made. The drawings are given to our sponsors to be used to manufacture parts for the robot.
  • Notes on how the robot code works and is compiled and downloaded to the robot.
  • Here's some calculations on elevator lift speeds using the real weights for this robot. Parker did some detailed work predicting the elevator speed and lifting times. Austin's spreadsheet has some verifying checks of Parker's work.
  • Driver Station Notes:
    • Before the 2011 Madtown Throwdown competition, we would loose control of the practice bot.  It would not respond to stick inputs so we would have to disable it.  It appeared that the laptop was loosing communication with the USB devices used for the wheel, throttle, and manipulators.  Perhaps the powered drive wheel was part of the problem.  We replaced the passive USB hub with a powered USB hub and this greatly reduced the problems and may have even eliminated them.  The unit we purchased was a Winstar WS-UH3041 USB3.0/2.0 4-Ports Hub w/ AC Adapter Black 5Gbps for $30 from Central Computers on El Camino Real in Sunnyvale.  Michael & Alex.