This has been a much slower build. We are only meeting in person and CAD development has slowed as students
Check out our blog for the latest news!
Gamma Ray 2021: Build
With the bulk of the FRC at Home challenge work completed, we have begun work on designing a new robot
FRC Resources of the
There are numerous resources for FRC teams published all the time. So much so it's hard to keep track of
2021 Survey Results &
We surveyed the team to see which activities and events they prioritized. From that data, we started laying out a plan
Spectrum’s 2021 Season Activities
Today we presented a variety of options to the entire team and are getting feedback from each member about which
Virtual Pit Dec 5th
Virtual PitWe will be holding our last Virtual Pit session of the year on Saturday, December 5th from 11am to
P.J. Lewalski – This
We are revisiting with P.J. who we interviewed in 2014. You can find P.J.'s original interview here. Since 2014, P.J.
Virtual Pit
VirtualPit.Spectrum3847.orgWhat is a Virtual Pit?A virtual pit is an online meeting session for members of the robotics community to come
Chairman’s Award Essay and
Here are our 2020 Chairman's submission documents.2020 Chairman's Essay2020 Executive Summary Questions and AnswersSpectrum Source: Spectrum
Design Review #10
Design Review #10 Source: Spectrum
Everybot Progress Photos +
EverybotOur Everybot project should be driving next week. We made a few changes from the original design already but overall,
VP Ratchet Climber Lock
Many teams have asked us about our climber break from last season. We mentioned possibly using it this season and
Design Review Comp Week
Debrief and Design ReviewThe design review and debrief slides are below. For our first event, we wanted to keep things
2020 Dripping Springs District
We will have our debrief meeting/design review tomorrow after school, so we should have a full recap then.We had a
2020 Day 54: Competition
It's been about a week since our last update. The competition robot has been coming together since then. Here are
2020: Day 45 (plus
Comp Robot is beginning to come together. IntakeNow with more polycarbonateShooter HoodPrinted and laser cut hood.Camera Mounts are progressingBuddy Climb MechanismThe
2020 Day 48: CAD
The CAD model has been updated on GrabCAD - https://grabcad.com/library/spectrum-3847-2020-ultraviolet-frc-robot-1Some of the electrical and pneumatics details are getting doneClimber Gearbox test
2020 Day 46: Design
No Bag DayIt's a very good day, it's the first of hopefully many no bag days in future seasons.For anyone
2020 Day 37, 38,
Design Review # 6Falcon 500 Tight PinionsHere is a video showing how we use the wire brush to make the
2020 Day 35 &
IntakeWe are getting some 2.5" OD polycarbonate tube to test soon. But for now.ShooterThe shooter is still under development. We
2020 Day 34
Really quick update today. We are moving along on revisions to CAD for the protobot so we can them fixed
2020 Day 32: Design
CAD Updated on GrabCADGrabCAD Model LinkDesign Review #5Spectrum Source: Spectrum
2020 Day 30 &
Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers Award Submissions Due this Week.The Chairman's Award essay and questions and the Woodie Flower's Award
2020 Day 29
We have most of the protobot mechanically done. We found several issues with the design and things we will be
2020 Day 28: Tower
Tower RailsWe have our tower rails mounted in place on the protobot. Tomorrow it will get shafts, belts, shooter wheels,
2020 Day 27:Tipping Point
Today marks the midway point between kickoff and our first event week 1 in Dripping Springs.Intake and Indexer TestingBoth systems
2020 Day 26: Intake
Intake ProgressProgress on the Protobot intake and funnel have come to their 2nd iteration.This version fixes some geometry issues with
2020 Day 25: Design
Design Review #4Video of the belt mechanism working. Spectrum Source: Spectrum
2020 Day 24: CAD
CAD UpdatedThe STEP file on GrabCAD has been updated for this week. You can download it here - https://grabcad.com/library/spectrum-3847-2020-ultraviolet-frc-robot-1Vision ProgressWe have
2020 Day 23: Intakes
Falcon PinionsWe ran into our first issue with the Falcon 500s are second batch of pinions were a tight fit
2020 Day 22: Protobot
Protobot ChassisWe found some issues with the current design that we will be fixing before we send off the comp
2020 Day 21: First
Sheet Metal ArrivedWith stop build day no longer existing this year we decided to move to a slightly different model.
2020 Day 20: CAD
Largely we have been getting more of our subsystem designs CADed.Shooter DesignWe are experimenting with adding a rear kicker wheel
2020 Day 18: Design
Design Review #3Third Tuesday of the season means it's our third design review.Here are a few of the slides presented
2020 Day 17: Public
CAD UpdatesToday we finally reached a point with multiple systems to create our top level Solidworks assembly and add in
2020 Day 16: Drive
Shooter TestingWe did more shooter testing today. We made several changes all at once we normally try not to do
2020 Day 15: Some
Shooter HoodTomorrow we will be testing some new shooter hood additions. We have yoga mat foam and PTFE sheet mounted
2020 Day 14: Controls
Controls UpdateOur controls Subteam has been working on several projects already this year.Their todo list is pretty longPath Following using
2020 Day 13: Prototypes
ShooterThe shooter prototype was updated with a more rigid hood and basic velocity control on the NEO motors. It's shooting
2020 Day 12: New
Block Robot UpdateThe new intake plan, allows for balls to rapidly be brought into the robot with a wide intake,
2020 Day 11: Design
Tuesday = design review dayHere are some of the slides from today's review put together by each of the subsystem
2020 Day 9 &
Everybot and Week 6 RobotsThis past Sunday, Spectrum was able to attend an event hosted by the Robonauts were Everybot
2020 Day 8: Quick
Power Cell Shooter TestingQuick shooter testing video from today, we are now starting to believe we can make a more
Day 7: Making a
Shooter TestingWe modified the shooter from our 2017 robot to be able to launch power cells. It's mounted to our
2020 Day 6: Advancing
Robot Design Plan UpdatesA little more thought, some more white board drawings and conversations, and a few bench tests have
2020 Day 4 –
Design Review #1On Tuesday's during the season we have our design reviews. We use a common google slide document to
2020 – Day 3
Today's TestsBump crossing tests - CG is important and braking hard is badhttps://photos.spectrum3847.org/2020-FRC/2020-Build-Season/i-VQ2CwLV/ALow CG and CG at the front of
2020 Spectrum Resource Collection
FRC CAD Collection - Blog - Link - Submission Form - CDWe created a simple system for collecting public CAD
FRC CAD Collection
We started putting together an FRC CAD collection - cadcollection.spectrum3847.org - It has over 375 links to FRC robot CAD files
Nikki Panda – This
Today we are getting to know Nikki Panda. Nikki has worked with many FRC teams and is an alumna of
Marshall Massengill – This
This week we interview Marshal Massengill from Team 900. Marshall has been involved with the Zebracorns since 2003 when he
Editable Chairman’s Documentation Form
We realized that the 2020 Chairman's Documentation Form published by FIRST is a PDF that isn't easily editable by teams.We
Cory Walters – This
We are starting our 2019-2020 series of This is How I Work with Cory Walters. Cory is a mentor for
2019 – Woodie Flowers
As many of you know our mentor, Allen Gregory, won the 2019 Woodie Flowers Award. The support that both the
Ready for El Paso
We compete this Saturday and Sunday at the El Paso District.You can watch the live stream here: https://www.twitch.tv/firstintexasevents2We have been driving
2019 Day 41: Hatches
We have been making progress. The practice bot is operational but all the mechanisms are still getting tweaked. The competition
2019 Day 34: CAD
We are progressing nicely though our design and build. The practice bot is just about ready to have its first
2019: Week 4 Recap
In week 4 we received our first sheet metal parts of the season. Huge thank you to our sponsor Solarcraft
2019 Day 19, 20,
The theme of our two Cargo manipulation groups for the past two weeks has been "EVERYTHING IS CHANGING!"This has been
2019 Day 18: CAD
We are releasing the STEP file for the 3 subsystems that we sent off to be laser cut this morning.Spectrum
2019 Day 16 &
We spent the long weekend getting the drive train, elevator, and climber ready to be sent off to our sponsor
2019 Day 15: Cargo
We have spent some time putting together a more complete intake prototype. Our protopipe system has been a huge help
2019 Day 14: Elevator
ElevatorThe elevator on this year's robot is a simple two stage cascading chain lift. Nothing too complicated. The cargo floor
2019 Day 13: Cargo
We have been successfully using Protopipe this season to test our cargo designs. It has let us make rapid iterations.Today
2019 Day 12: CAD
CAD UpdatesWe still have a lot of work to do before this design is ready for production but we are
2019 Day 10
Cargo MechanismThis will hold the cargo on the elevator. The mechanism will intake it from the over the bumper ball
2019 Day 9: Inspiration
As we start bring our ideas to life in CAD there have been a few robots that we keep coming
2019 Day 8: Allenless
Progress ReportThe team spent the majority of their time in the lab today tuning their subsystem designs.Sheet Metal DeadlineThe subsystems
2019 Day 6: Spectrum
One of the projects we have added this year is building an MCC robot with some our new students. This
2019 Day 5: 1st
Ball Sizing RingsWe laser cut 3 ball sizing rings, 12.5", 13", and 13.5" in diameter. This lets us inflate balls
2019 Build Day 3:
Most of today was spent finishing up playing field tasks but we also had a few prototypes and CAD sessions
2019 Build Day 2:
Practice Field BuildingMost of our manpower was spent on field building today. We started day making a lumber run for
2019 DDS: Day 1
Kickoff for our 9th season was today with the release of FRC Destination Deep Space.See the reveal video below and
Spectrum 2019 Resource Collection
Every year we try to document a little bit more of our knowledge and procedures for other teams to use
90 degree adapter prototype
We purchased a Milescraft 1303 Drive90PLUS right angle drill adapter from Amazon to see if it would work as a 90-degree adapter
Guide to the FRC
We have been asked multiple times to put together a list of items teams should have on hand to build
FRC Powder Coating Guide
We have released a Powder Coating Guide for FRC teams. It shows you how we powder coat our parts in
Protopipe: Rapid Prototyping System
We have been working on creating a system to allow us to quickly and easily design mechanisms that let us
Scouting Tablets and Storage
Amazon Fire HD 8Spectrum is moving to a digital scouting system next year. We purchased 9 Amazon Fire HD 8
Spectrum – This Fri
View this email in your browserIndiana Robotics Invitational July 13-14Watch the action live: www.twitch.tv/FIRSTinspiresEvent Results and Matches: The Blue AllianceSpectrum is
Projector Speaker Stand Mounts
As we prepare for our off-season event we are updating part of our AV system. One of the things we
Practicing and FIRST $10,000
We have been getting in a lot of practice with the practice robot. The arm is faster now and we
Pre Lone Star Central
Quick update, the robot design has stayed the same we have just been finding things to fix and getting subsystems
Day 40, 41, &
We have been putting together the competition bot and powder coating parts. We also got the practice arm assembled and
Day 38 & 39:
Power Switch and connector mountingWe worked on our power switch and battery connector mount the past two days, going through
Day 37: Springs on
Springs on the IntakeIf people are looking for a cheap way to do a compliant intake without pneumatics or as
Day 36: Drive Train,
The practice bot drive train has begun assembly over the past few days. There were a few minor tweaks to
Day 34: Puncher Test
We were able to bench test our puncher concept today. This is uses fast McMaster solenoids, two 8" stroke 1.0625" bore
Day 33: Demos and
We had a demo at Neff Elementary Science Night tonight. It's always fun inspire younger students to get excited about
Day 32: Sheetmetal Delivery
AwardsReminder your Chairman's Award and Woodie Flower's Award essay's are due Thursday afternoon, get them done and submitted tomorrow night
Day 29, 30, 31:
Intake UpdatesThis is intake version 8 for us. We modified the arm angles to improve the geometry and moved to
Day 28: The hard
We were testing how narrow our max opening could be for the intake arms and during the testing the intake
Day 24: Entering the
Most of the past few days has been lots of CAD work for the subsystem teams. Getting the first major
Day 22 & 23:
IntakeThe new intake prototype was the main focus for testing this weekend. We only CAD enough of it so that
Day 21: Hook Prototype
Hook prototypesWe are working through some basic routed hook prototypes to see how the pneumatic fold out will work on
Day 19 & 20:
Vlogs and Video Updates from other teamsA ton of teams have been making build Vlogs this year on YouTube but
Day 18: 4 Bar
Today was probably the end of the our 4 bar intake prototype. We had some goals for the intake design
Day 17: new wheels
We received our Fairlane wheels in the male today. These are the 20A Nitrile durasoft wheels.They hold the cube far
Day 16: Virtual 4
Intake prototypes are finally running, took a little longer than we wanted with the ice days last week. It's working
Day 15: More CAD
Hook geometry to starting to take shape. We love this video by Adam Heard and 973 for designing pneumatic linkages. Drive
Day 14
Drive TrainDrive train CAD is starting to progress. We'll get the gearboxes and belly pan on over the weekend, and
Day 13: Intake motion
We did have our first meeting back after the winter storm. Most of the team spent the day at Memorial
Day 12: Sencond Ice
We couldn't meet Tuesday or Wednesday this due to hazardous road conditions and closed highways.We are too the stage we
Day 11: Ice day
We actually didn't meet for the first time in recent memory. The roads were iced and we have a deep
Day 10: Wooden Chassis
Quick update again today. We are continuing some of the testing and finally deciding on a drive train. We didn't
Day 9: Climber Progress
Just a short update of what we are working on. Our current plan is to have two seperate climbing methods depending
Day 8: MCCC and
Lifting PrototypesWe purchased a lever chain hoist this morning so that we could test different lifting concepts without having a
Day 7: Power Up
We are a week into the season and a bunch of resources, examples, and documents have been published about the
Day 6: Redesigns coming
We're not sure if you call it a redesign when you never really started designing the first option. Today's design
Day 5: The Q&A
Today brought the first clarifications of multiple rules from the GDC in the Q&A.https://frc-qa.firstinspires.org/Climber/Bumper QuestionsTwo critical Q&As are Q4 and
Day 3: Intake all
The focus of today's meeting was to catch people up on our analysis from the weekend and then start thinking
What’s in the Box?
This bin is used for bolt spacers and washers.We order our bolt spacers normally #10 and 1/4" IDs with 1/2"
What’s in the Box?
We are looking at our sensors case today. It's also a bit disorganized. This is a collection of sensors taken
What’s in the Box?
Here is one of the cases we need to organize a bit more. It's are most used case so it's
What’s in the Box?
This is a pretty simple one. We keep a case that has our chain tools, master links, and some amount
What’s in the box?
Today we are going to dive into the Dewalt TSTAK toolboxes that we take with us to competitions. We have
SPECTaculaR Summer Camp
Spectrum members with their students after a successful 2 weeks.From July 31-August 11, Spectrum team members taught engineering principles and
Spectrum: How I Work
How I Work Trading CardsThis year we have added on to our How I Work Blog Series by making Trading Cards for
Day 48: Recap
So we had a bit of break but we'll try to keep things updated as we move through the competition
Day 32: Sheetmetal should
Look for our big blog post tomorrow night after we get our sheetmetal back.We have been preparing all our parts
Day 30: Superbowl Bot
We are still working on getting our parts ready for the sheet metal delivery.We have our gears and wheel modules
Day 29: Adventures in
Now that sheet metal has been sent out, it's finally time for us to buckle down and figure out some
Day 26: Preparing for
With the main sheet metal order sent off to our sponsors we now have to prepare all the rest of
Day 25: 2017 Spectrum
2017 Spectrum CAD Model - "Gamma Ray"Our main sheet metal order for our robot has been sent over to our
Adrienne Emerson – This
This week, we’re featuring Adrienne Emerson, an important mentor to many students and the community. Her love for engineering began
Day 21: Three weeks
Here is are nearly finished drive train and bumpers CAD.There are still some big issues with the robot to be
Day 20: Programming &
Our programming team has started getting our autonomous running on our 2014 practice robot. We are using a very similar
Day 18: Week 3
Check_in Watch our full segment on check_in here and be sure to watch the live show every Tuesday at 6 CT
Day 17: Prototype drive
This is our prototype sheetmetal drive train and intake. It's actually one of the most cleanly wired robots we have
Day 16: The 2nd
We are now officially in to the 2nd third of the season. Teams should be rounding out their ideas and
Day 15: First round
Week 2 has come to an end. We built a test hopper to make sure our ball count numbers were
Day 13: Robot Update
Spectrum Week 2 Video UpdatesRecap Video Full Time Lapse check_inBe sure to watch our segment of check_in from this Tuesday's showNew live
Day 10: CAD progressing
Here is a portion of the CAD we have done for the robot. The drive train and a portion of
Day 8: Start of
Long Saturday in the lab we are working though getting the prototypes assembled and finding the sticking points that we
Day 7: Climbing
We continued working on prototypes, including retro fitting one of our off-season robots to be a climbing test bed. We
Day 6: Prototypes are
As we said earlier we have made an effort to make sure we are doing a better job of actually
Day 4: Recap
We're now 4 days through the season. This is when teams are finalizing their initial designs and beginning to build
Day 3: Rethinking our
We started the day by going back over the strategy notes from Saturday and seeing what assumptions we made that
Day 2: Full STEAM
Robot Design is BeginningWe started brainstorming designs and working through solutions to our strategy goals. A bunch of sketches were done
Dialing Back the Server
BackstoryWe recently outfitted room 3103C (our side room/kitchen/overflow) with the rolling A/V rack we use for events, and a 2U
Updated CAD Library
We've updated our CAD Library that we published last year with new models from VEXpro, AndyMark, REV Robotics and more.Also
Illuminations 2016: Rookie Resource
Are you new to FRC, you probably have a lot of questions. Illuminations is here to help you get up
Space City Vex &
We spent this past weekend at two events. On Saturday we were at Space City Vex helping out our friends
Greg McKaskle – This
This week’s How I Work focuses on Greg McKaskle, a FIRST mentor of not only 2468 Team Appreciate, but also
Katie Widen – This
In this week’s How I Work, we’re delving into the life of a Katie Widen a former student of 1675
Jonathan Bryant – This
In this week’s How I Work, we are going to look a little bit into the life of a familiar
Spectrum AV Case
We built a new AV Case to help with make running events such as TRI easier. We have attached some
Jim Zondag – This
It has been a long time since the last How I Work article has come out, so we're coming back
Day 44: Reveal and
Ultraviolet 2016 Here is the reveal of our 2016 FRC Stronghold robot, Ultraviolet. The video is of our practice robot.
Day 36: Finally Driving
We had a bit of a scare this week. Our main manufacturing sponsor called on Wednesday afternoon to inform us
Day 28: Helping Hand
A rookie team we are mentoring came to use with some problems with their robot. The drive train wasn't performing
Day 26: Production Ready
This is our intake ready for drawing to be made and sent off for production. This model doesn't show the
Day 24: Drive Train
The drive train CAD is nearly complete. We have been referencing a lot of 1114's designs this year and their
Day 22: Strategy and
We had a long discussion about our scouting and strategy plan for the 2016 season. We are adopting many of
Day 21: Intake
We finished the wooden intake today. It has a few geometry errors that we need to fix before going into
Day 19: Wooden Chassis
We wired up our wooden chassis today and have it driving around. It's not the best prototype since it is
Day 18: The Q&A
We are over a third of the way through the season and the Q&A has already led to some big
Day 14: Week 2
We had our design review meeting. Here is a very rough CAD sketch of the current robot plan. It has
Day 12: From Deep
We upgraded the shooter prototype even more today by making our Tri-wheeled shooter use multiple wheels so they act like
Day 11: More Testing
Relatively short build meeting, today. We were able to make the next iteration on the shooter by adding a third
Day 10: Last Day
We completed the third of three very long build sessions today. Shooter The main progress of today was a couple
Day 9: Full Speed
Now that we have finished building all the defenses, we can turn our full focus to working on our prototypes
Day 8: Defensive Breakdown
Today we decided to step back and re-evaluate our kickoff design and strategy, resulting in a scrap of our previous
Day 7: Robot Pullup
We built a rung for hanging and attached it to our shelves. It works really well, and some people even
Day 6: Portable Defenses
We upgraded some defenses and got our sheet metal shipment in today. We decided to order some casters to put
Day 5: Defense Fixing
We started off our meeting with a quick cleanup so we can be more productive. We also fixed our cheval
Day 4: More field
We made some more progress our outerworks today. Our current drawbridge and cheval de frise need a little adjustment to
Day 3: 4 Defenses
Today we continued to test our prototypes and build defenses. We're focusing on defense building right now so that we
Day 2: Field Building
We're focusing a bit more on field building rather than prototyping at the moment. We made a castle tower so
Day 1: Slowing Down
Stronghold is finally here, in all of its complexity. Despite this complexity, we plan to learn from our mistakes last
Spectrum Solidworks CAD Library
We have been working on a parts library for a number of years. It currently includes most COTS items from
Grab Bag: new driver
There are a lot of little things we do or discover through out the year that don't really justify a
Kristine Atiyeh – This
This month we are looking at Kristine Atiyeh, an inspiring mentor who helps kids learn in all sorts of ways.
Versaplanetary Integrated Encoder Build
Two weeks ago Nate Lavedure from FRC#2363 posted a fantastic white paper on making an integrated VersaPlanetary encoder. They had
China Travel Log Day
5 members of Spectrum are in China and Hong Kong for next two weeks along with our friends the Robonauts
Improvised hubs for McMaster-Carr
McMaster-Carr sells some very nice wheels that are used in industrial applications for moving products, sheet materials, and more they
TRI Presentations 2015
We just got the 2015 TRI Presentations uploaded to YouTube. Aren and Andrew did a great job providing valuable information
Ryan Dognaux – This
This month we’re featuring the life of Ryan Dognaux, a mentor from FRC team 4329 who was previously on FRC
Spectrum LEDs
We are very happy to announce a new batch of resources that we are publishing, Spectrum LEDs (Luminous Educational Documents).
Tyler Holtzman – This
This week we are getting to know more about Tyler Holtzman, the highly revered mentor from 2056 OP Robotics. He's
Championship
Spectrum won Judges' Award on our division at champs. This is a huge honor and our first award at the
Rev 2: Day 5
Day 4 was spent traveling to Texarkana in preparation for our first regional in Little Rock. We got to Texarkana
Rev 2 Day 2
The 2nd rev is progressing, very little time left. We should be able to test tomorrow.
Recycle Rush Rev 2:
The last month has been challenging. We had faced a number of set backs with our current design. We started
Day 35: Active Collector,
After we posted some videos and our CAD part of the feedback we got was people asking us about our
Day 34: A good
The last few days had been uneventful. We had some failed tests and we have been working through some potential
Day 31: A Little
We finally got our cylinders in place for most functions today. We ran out of time to be able to
Day 30: Assembling the
We received our sheet metal parts on Friday afternoon. Everything looked great on the parts. Saturday and Sunday were spent
Day 26: Mid-build Cleaning
We started our meeting off with a mid-build clean. Swept and vacuumed up the entire lab and reorganized tools. We
Day 25: Open CAD
Spectrum is using GrabCAD Workbench this year to do version control and content management for our Solidworks CAD files of
Day 21, 22, 23,
Sorry for the lack of updates, the past four days have been all CAD all the time. That's the current
Day 19 & 20:
For the most part we have been focusing on getting our CAD models complete over the past couple days. We're
Day 18: Cleaning up
We cleaned up our electrical wiring on the practice robot. This will make it easier to keep things safe and
Day 16: Drive Train
Lots of progress on the practice robot (robot 1) today. The electronics were mounted and wheels were chained together. We
Day 15: Drive Train
We had a busy day of CAD and routing parts. Today was the first real day of riveting as well.
Day 14: Ramping Up
We really started getting into the construction of our versaframe based chassis today. Many of the parts we are 3D
Day 13: Parts arrive
Our VEXpro order came in today that included our drive gearboxes, and some other parts of our chassis. We also
Day 12: Putting some
As part of our move to our new lab, we got a CNC router and new 3D printer. Today we
Day 11: CADing and
We fixed a few things with the prototype robot, but most of the day was spent CADing. We also have
Day 9: 1st Boot
Sorry for the delayed post, we had a long weekend. Yesterday we opened our lab to 6 other local teams
Day 8: More Prototyping
Today we worked more on our prototypes. Tote Puller Here is the working version of our tote puller. This mechanism
Day 7: Prototyping Continues
We made progress on some of our prototypes today. 4-Bar Lift We added a tilt to the lift to aid
Day 4: More Prototyping
We worked out a few more iterations and developments today but made no major changes. We started looking at quick
Day 3: 4-Bar Prototype
Most of today was spent working on the 4-bar prototype. This design was inspired heavily by FRC#148 The Robowrangler's 2011
Shelly Gaydos – This
Shelly Gaydos is a mentor who is very dedicated to her team and spreading the word of FIRST. Gaydos is
Glenn Lee – This
This week we are featuring a revered mentor who’s been with his team since their inception, Glenn Lee. He’s led
Last Week in FRC:
Short post this week. We are working on the new lab and haven't had time to get much done. WATCH
This Week in FRC
Regional Dates and FRC Registration Most of the regional dates are now official and FRC Registration opens on Thursday (Sep
This Week in FRC
Simbot Seminar Series The Simbots are an amazing team. So amazing in fact that they are going to teach everyone
Jason Ball – This
Mr. Ball graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in physics, and he later graduated from Rice University with
Ty Tremblay – This
With Chezy Champs just around the corner we thought it fitting to introduce one of the members of the GameSense
This Week in FRC
This was an exciting week in FRC. We had a few big announcements made by FIRST Headquarters and a couple
This Week in FRC
We're starting a new series today -- "This Week in FRC" -- which will feature the recent happenings inside the
Libby Kamen – This
In this edition of "This Is How I Work" we have one of the most prominent figures in the FIRST
Dell Business Plan Challenge
We were finalists in the Dell Business Plan Challenge put together by Dell and FIRST in Texas. This summer competition
The Ballad of Sprinkle(s)
On a sunny July day in Ft. Worth, Texas, a simple question was asked. If you are given a different
Wendy Holladay – This
This week we are looking into the life of Wendy Holladay, a very supportive member of her team, always helping
Alex Cormier – This
Alex Cormier was one of the founding members of team 1126 and since then, he has been on several other
P.J. Lewalski – This
P.J. has been on team 910 since 2007, a teacher in training at Oakland University, a trained referee and a
Texas Robotics Invitational is
We would love for you to attend the inaugural Texas Robotics Invitational on June 21, 2014, in the Strake Jesuit Competition Gym,
Engineering workshops for young
This week we worked with two groups of girls and taught them to program Lego robots. On Monday night we
Comicpalooza Day 2
We had our biggest day of the weekend with 12 FRC teams represented and several VEX teams. Teams in attendance
Comicaplooza Day 1
Today was the first day of Comicaplooza 2014. It was great being able to bring FRC and VEX robots to
Justin Ridley – This
Justin Ridley is our second mentor from FRC#118 The Robonauts. He is another FIRST success story, having started on a
Summer Plans
Spectrum is going to be busy this summer. We finally uploaded the archive of our build blog to Chiefdelphi. Our
Lone Star Update Elimination
For a full list of thank yous read this post on chiefdelphi. The third day of Lone Star was very
Inside Infrared: Collector
If you followed along during the build season, you saw nearly all of our collector prototyping. We spent many hours
Inside Infrared: The Back
One of the features we are most proud of on Infrared is our back panel. It integrates our launcher and
Iterating: Pneumatic Launcher
We have been working on our robot in the past few days since Dallas. We had several problems with our
Inside Infrared: Bumpers
We are going to start our Inside Infrared series with something that seems pretty easy, our bumpers. Teams have been
Dallas Regional Recap
We competed in Dallas this past weekend. We finished with a 9-7 record overall and made it to the semi-finals.
Day (not counting anymore):
We have been quiet the past couple weeks but we have been very hard at work. We got the chance
Bag Day: Infrared
Infrared Reveal VideoReveal PhotosTo discuss the robot head over to our CD thread. It's in the bag. The handles even
Day 45: Filming
We started the day trying to get through a few problems that have crept up on the competition robot. Nothing
Day 43: It’s really
We have spent way more time making sure that everything on this robot is in the right place and looks
Day 41: Five Days
Spectrum 2014 Chairman's Entry That's our 2014 Chairman's entry for this year. We have put in a lot of time
Day 39: Parts are
We got all the parts back from the powder coater today, sadly there won't be any purple powder coat on
Day 38: New Collector
We didn't get our powder coated parts back today. We have been assured tomorrow. The assembly should only take 3
Day 34: Withholding allowance
We're sort of just waiting on the parts to come back from powder coat at this point. Lots of little
Day 33: Fixing our
Sorry for no post yesterday, we had a really short meeting since there were parent-teacher conferences. Mostly worked on chairman's
Day 30: When life
Well today was interesting. We started the day by taking off the mecanum wheels from our drive train and replacing
Day 29: Mama said
This is a hard post to write. It's just been one of those days where nothing goes well. We had
Day 28: Full Robot
We started the day off with a visit from one of our local FLL teams, from The St. Thomas More
Day 26: It looks
Lots of robot pictures today. We got the back panel mostly constructed and the collector mounted. The robot in this
Day 25: Sheetmetal Everywhere
We just got our second run of laser cut parts back from our sponsor's facility. One of our students was
Day 24: Octocanum on
Sorry for not having a post yesterday, we were hanging out with a few young teams at the Houston Bootcamp
Day 22: Zoom Zoom
Here is the the video from our Butterfly drive test. This looks really good and is just a lot of
Day 21: Ice Day
We had an ice day today so no school. Many of the Houston overpasses were iced over this morning. This
Day 19: Launcher Video
We finally have some good video of our launcher prototype. It's performing as we expected, with a wide range of
Day 18: Parts Arrive
After the long weekend we got many of our orders from week two. We had a large amounts of screws,
Day 17: Another Long
We were off from school for MLK so we had another long work day. We improved our pneumatic launcher to
Day 16: Mechanism CADing
We worked more on CADing up the game specific mechanism for our robot. Most of it is still in draft
Day 15: Robots and
We put together as much of the chassis as we could. This one ways about 50lbs as shown here. The
Day 14: Two Weeks
After the sheet metal came in today, we started construction on the practice robot. We set up a test version
Day 13: Sheet Metal
We finished the CAD for our chassis and a few other parts yesterday and one of our seniors who interned
Day 11: Drive Train
We finalized the CAD for the drive train today. We are cutting a heavy version for our practice bot that
Day 10: Back to
Sorry we missed a couple days. We had a Bootcamp build day yesterday where we helped 5 teams get their
Day 7: It’s been
We continued improving our prototypes today after our design meeting yesterday. We modified our collector prototype to a version inspired
Day 6: Need, Want,
Today was our first design review. We have seen the 72 hour builds, prototyped a little, and played a human
Day 5: Prototyping doesn’t
Quick update today, we still have a lot of things to prototype before we finalize a design. We're hoping to
Day 4: Inspiration From
We have been putting in some serious hours CADing away at the drive train. It may look simple from the
Day 3 of Aerial
We continued our prototyping today. The improved roller claw is working very nicely. We're not convinced that we will even
Day 2: Prototyping really
Today we continued our prototyping in earnest. We had members working on several different launching and collection mechanisms. Here is
Aerial Assist Day 1
Day 1 of Aerial Assist went very well. Here is the animation for anyone that missed it this morning. We
Karthik Kanagasabapathy – This
We have been on a short hiatus but we're back with a bang. Today we have one of the most well
Justin Montois – This
This week we are featuring one of the creators of Mike and Justin in the Morning and FRC Top 25,
VEX Toss Up, Ball
Today we had multiple groups working on several projects. We had our seniors working on their VEX robots for Toss
Norman Morgan – This
Norman Morgan, or Coach Norm as he is known to most, has been coaching FRC#2468 since their inception six years
1st Pipefall Prototype
We built our first prototype collector today for the Pipefall game. Its a very basic roller claw. We will continue
David Bodmer – This
This week we have our first mentor from the Mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) District. David Bodmer is the lead mentor for
Kiet Chau – This
The Holy Cows get the honor of being of our first team with two mentors featured on our blog. We
2013 Offseason Design Competition
We're excited to announce our first Offseason Design Competition. We want to see any and all robot/mechanism designs for our
Danny Diaz – This
Danny Diaz is in an engineer for National Instruments and a long time mentor for team #418 LASA Robotics. The
Jess Jankowitsch – This
Jess Jankowitsch has been around the FIRST program since her early days as an FLL student. She has performed nearly every job
Jon Jack – This
The Chairman's Award is FIRST's highest honor. It's given to a single team each year at Championship and that team
Andrew Lynch – This
Andrew Lynch is the lead mentor of team 2587 the Discobots and a close friend of Spectrum. Andrew is a true journeyman of
IRI Recap
Spectrum had an amazing time this past weekend at the Indiana Robotics Invitational. We were thrilled to be chosen as
Adam Freeman – This
For our first mentor outside of our home state of Texas, we bring you the coach of one of the
There is no Off-Season
A few years ago, going to two or three events with your FRC robot was a long season. We leave
Scott Rippetoe – This
We’re kicking off our new blog series “How I work” with the head mentor for the 2013 FRC Champions, FRC#1477
Summer Programs
Spectrum is keeping busy during the summer months. This week we worked with the St. Agnes Academy "Be the Change
2013.5 Mock FRC Game:
. The Full Manual and CAD of the field can be found on our website. https://www.spectrum3847.org/PIPEFALL Pipefall is a robotics
BAG DAY
We finished up the official build season today by fixing our bottom hard stop for our shooter tilt and getting
Day 45: Spectrum Showcase
Today was our open house, Spectrum Showcase, for parents and friends to come see the robot that we spent six
Day 44: Two Days,
18 Hour days and we still have a lot to got on our competition robot. The competition robot will be wired tomorrow
Day 41: Crunch Time
Tomorrow starts are last weekend of build session. We'll be building pretty much strait through till bag day to get
Day 40: Only 6
We hadn't done much testing of the tilt mechanism until today. It still needs work but it's at least closer
Day 38: More Problems,
All our powder coated parts came back today. That was a huge positive. We have one week to get the
Day 36: Hanging
We were able to put on the pop-up can opener hanging device today. It's still in prototype form but we
Day 35: Iterating
We had to disassemble most of the robot today to be able iterate several of the systems. The lift came off so
Day 34: Sheet Metal
We received our 2nd run of sheet metal from Solarcraft Inc. today. They have been fantastic about making parts for
Day 30: Bumper Build
Bumper Build Our 1st annual Super Bowl Bumper Build was very successful. We had 5 teams in attendance (4155, 4280, 4346, 4639,
Day 28: Picking up
All our meetings are long, but today's was extra long, leading into an even longer weekend. We received our first
Day 27: Last year
Last year at this time we had a working (driving and shooting) robot. This year we don't even have a
Day 24: Batteries are
CAD is still progressing, and the first of the machined parts are being made at TXRX Labs and Solarcraft Inc.
Houston kit bot build
Today we were on hand at the 2nd kit bot build day of the Ultimate Ascent season. We had a
HISD VEX League Day
Spectrum was on hand to help run the 2nd day of the HoustonISD VEX Robotics League. It's been great working
Day 21
That is the current CAD that we are finished with so far. All the electronic mounts have been sent to
Versaplanetary CIM/MiniCIM Mounting
Note: For more on this setup go to this CD thread (starts at about post #61). There might be ways to
Day 19
We're still working on getting all our systems designed in CAD. We hadn't thought through several of them till today.
Day 18: Details
Lately, most of the work has been in CAD, but we are still working on a few systems and details
Day 17: Starting to
Nothing spectacular to show yet. We still have some things we haven't published on the blog that are integral to
Versaplanetary 1:1 Conversion
1/23/13 Edit: VEX has released the Versaplanetary User Manual please look over this before following these instructions. We have received a
Day 15: Houston Mini
We took the day off from constructing our 2013 robot to take Violet out to the Houston Mini Maker Faire.
Day 14: Two weeks
Our current plan is to build a (mostly) functional prototype robot before we send off parts to the laser cutter.
Day 13: Drive Train
We're close to two weeks in and we finally have a moving drive train (with test electronics). We're using the VEXpro Drive in
Day 10: Chassis Construction
We received our VEXpro chassis today and various other parts from VEX Robotics. This new line of off-the-shelf parts has been
Day 9: First Kit
Today was the first of two Houston Area Kit Bot Build Days. Spectrum brought 15 people to the event to
Day 8: Coming back
We had another long day but we made some good progress. We were even able to mount a prototype of
Day 7: It’s been
It's strange how fast you can go from feeling way ahead to feeling behind. After far too much talking, math,
Day 6: It finally
Our design was going along a little too well. We knew something wasn't right and we finally figured it out.
2013 Day 5: prototyping
The mad race to get working prototypes continued for day 5. We made some new discoveries that we have to
2013 Build Season Day
We were back at it this morning. Several of us spent well over 24 hours in the lab this weekend.
Spectrum 3847 – 2013
The game for 2013 was released this morning. We will be back nightly to build and will post updates from
Meineke Car Care Bowl
On Friday (12/28/12) we were invited to demo our FRC robot at the Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas as
HoustonISD VEX League Day
Spectrum is helping organize the Houston ISD VEX Robotics League as part of their UIL Academic tournaments. So far we have
Spectrum Mock Kickoff 2012-13
Spectrum hosted the inaugural Houston Area Mock Kickoff this Saturday (Dec 8th, 2012) at St. Agnes Academy. The event is
Houston VEX Regional 2012
Spectrum was at the Houston VEX Regional this past Saturday (Dec 1st). We had both 3847A and 3847J on hand
Solarcraft Tour
On Wednesday (11/14/12), Spectrum had the opportunity to tour the Solarcraft Inc. facility. Solarcraft (www.solarcraft.net) is a local company that makes power
Canstruction Houston 2012
Spectrum competed in the 2012 Canstruction Houston event this year. Five of our team members worked with architects from Wallace
Houston VEX League Finale
The Houston VEX League Finale was this past weekend, November 9-10th, 2012. Spectrum's two robots 3847A and 3847J both competed
Community Day 2012
This Saturday (11/3) Spectrum spent the day interacting with our Houston community. We started the day by volunteering at the
Houston Robot Remix 2012
Spectrum had its last event of the 2012 FRC season on Saturday (10/27). The inaugural Houston Robot Remix took place
VEX at the Sally
On Saturday our team had to split up for the morning. Most of our team was at Robot Remix (blog
Mentor for a Day
Spectrum had the great privilege of having Katie Strausser, a St. Agnes Engineering Team alumnus, visit the team on Monday
Weekend of Volunteering
This past week was spent mostly on making improvements to the VEX Robots for the Houston League Competitions. We're working
VEX League this Saturday
We're hosting the first event of the Houston VEX League this Saturday (10/6) at Strake Jesuit College Prep. We'll have
Mentor for a Day:
We had our 1st Mentor for a Day on Friday (9/21/12). Zeb Scoville from NASA's Extravehicular Activity team came to
Moving Along Nicely
We have been progressing nicely on our VEX robots but we only have 18 days to have two completed robots
School is back in
We're already into our third week of classes and the team is beginning our fall activities. We kicked off the
Summer Work Continues in
We haven't posted in a few weeks but that doesn't mean we have stopped working. Spectrum Summer Workshop Series 2012
Moving on to Summer
End of Summer Stage 1 This week marks the end of stage 1 of our summer project plan. You can
SPECTaculaR is Underway
Build Log Quick note the build log from this build season has been archived and uploaded to Chiefdelphi. Thank you to everyone
Preparing for Camp
Lego Camp Preparations The last couple weeks have been devoted to preparing for the Lego Camp that is starting next week.
Bringing The Blog Back
We stopped updating at the end of build season but we want to get back in the habit of having an easy
Build Log 46: Last
Build Season is over It looks pretty close to the CAD Model Bag and Tagged at 11:16pm Headed to Dallas
Build Log 44: Only
We spent the day at the Houston Scrimmage with teams 2587, 1429, 2585, and 441. It was great to see
Build Day 35: More
We did a lot to the robot today. We made new polycord belts to replace the yellow ones that we
Build Day 34: Banebots
We got our shipment of Banebots motors and gearboxes today. 5 x P60 16:1 Gearboxes and 4 x 550 motors.
Build Day 27: It
We mounted the electrical panels and wired up the robot today. It still needs some wire care to make sure
Build Day 25: Three
We're through the half way point now, so we can begin counting down to end of build. 21 Days to
Build Day 23: And
Electrical is now the main priority for the robot. We have most of the mechanical systems mounted but we need to get
Build 21
We were able to power the collector today with motors, the tests were promising but also pointed out a couple
Build Day 20: Collector/elevator
The collector is now mounted on the robot, we had to mount it twice to fix some issues but that's
Build Day 19: 4
We made a huge amount of progress today because the final shipment of mechanical parts arrived. We were able to
Build Day 17: Starting
We are still waiting on some parts, but the main functions of the robot are coming together. The elevator should
Build Day 15: Robot
The robot progressed really far today. We have most of the drive train finished, minus a few chain runs. The
Build Day 13: Busy
Our build session started off with a presentation by the founders of BlueStampEngineering.com. They are bringing a summer engineering program
Build Day 8: Prototypes
We tested several of our prototypes today. We're moving forward with the design and the tests all look to be
Build Day 7: End
This is the mock up of our current design. A little explanation of the robot, the balls get spun up into
Build Day 6
We're getting closer to a final design. We have prototypes of most of the subsystems underway. The collector prototype was
About our team
We are a High School Engineering and FIRST Robotics Competition Team from St. Agnes Academy and Strake Jesuit College Preparatory located in Houston, Texas. Since 2011, Spectrum has focused on introducing students to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) while enriching our members, schools, community, and the world. Thank you to our sponsors for your support.
Thank you to our sponsors!
