FIRST Tech Challenge is thrilled to announce a brand new video blog series to help teams and our community transition to the new FTC Android-based technology platform, powered by Snapdragon processors. FTC Tech Talk will bring you along through the transition with us, explaining the benefits of the changes and providing updates in real time. Ken Johnson, Director of FTC will be hosting FTC Tech Talk, so tune in each week for new updates. If you have questions please feel free to post them in the FTC Technology Forum, but remember to read through previous posts before posting and always use Gracious Professionalism.
When the Samantha Module was introduced for the 2009 Get Over It! season, FTC organizers in Oklahoma were looking for someone to do technical support and clear up questions around the new WiFi system. They reached out to Jeremy Weimer. "I participated in the BEST robotics program [in high school], which was very enjoyable and rewarding," said Jeremy, who now works at an engineering firm specializing in mechanical, electrical and power for new buildings. "When I heard about the FTC competition, I was quite curious and interested in what was involved." Jeremy Weimer Jeremy's first tournament, the state championship at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU) where he's a student, was also the first time the Field Control System was used in Oklahoma. He was tasked with setting it up and running it. However, he had only gotten his hands on it two days prior to the tournament. "It was chaotic, to say the least," he said. Despite some delays due...
This is the first entry of an 8-part series. Each entry will be published Tuesday, so be sure to look each week for the next post! 3D Printing for FIRST Teams Authors: Kari Karwedsky, PTC , and Colm Prendergast, Mentor for FRC Team 1965 Many FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition teams now have access to a 3D printer thanks to the generous donations of suppliers, but now what do you do with it? To get started, it’s probably a good idea to just tinker with it making something like a pencil cup to get a feel for how the printer works. But after that, how do you decide what makes sense to print for your robot? In this blog series we’ll review a robot design (by FRC Team 1965) that has several components that were 3D printed. This robot was specifically built to test the capabilities of 3D printing techniques. We will then walk through the 3D printing workflow used. We will discuss guidelines for deciding which parts might be good parts to consider 3D printing for your...
3D Printing for FIRST Teams Authors: Kari Karwedsky, PTC , and Colm Prendergast, Mentor for FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1965 3D Printing Work Flow The 3D Printing Work Flow that we use is composed of 7 steps. Step 1: Design your part using PTC Creo. Step 2: Export Model from PTC Creo in .stl format. Step 3: Prepare Model and Generate g-code file (or equivalent) for the printer. Step 4: Prepare and Level the 3D Printer Build Plate. Step 5: Load printer filament. Step 6: Print Model. Step 7: Clean up printed model. In this blog post, we will look more closely at Steps 5 and 6. 3D Printing Step 5: Load printer filament. Loading the Printer Filament is the last step to be completed prior to printing. Most 3D printers use spools of filament that are un-rolled as the filament is consumed. In our case we use 1kg roles of PLA filament. For this project we will use a roll of MakerBot “True Red” PLA filament with a 1.75mm diameter. MakerBot “True Red” PLA filament PLA is a...
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