3lb Beginner's Guide - Revision history

Ctyler31: Switched disadvantage columns for Aluminum 6061 and 7075. Also switched "HDPE aluminum" to "HDPE" for cost of HDPE plate.

2020-05-09T09:37:04Z

Switched disadvantage columns for Aluminum 6061 and 7075. Also switched "HDPE aluminum" to "HDPE" for cost of HDPE plate.

Dsadoski3 at 00:58, 23 February 2019

2019-02-23T00:58:04Z

Jreed48: /* Step 4: CAD Parts */

2018-12-08T04:37:14Z

‎Step 4: CAD Parts

Jreed48: /* Step 5: CAD Assembly */

2018-12-08T04:20:58Z

‎Step 5: CAD Assembly

Jreed48: /* Step 5: CAD Assembly */

2018-12-08T04:12:48Z

‎Step 5: CAD Assembly

Jreed48: /* Step 5: CAD Assembly */

2018-12-08T03:58:49Z

‎Step 5: CAD Assembly

Jreed48: /* Step 6: Design Review */

2018-12-08T03:54:15Z

‎Step 6: Design Review

Jreed48: /* Step 7: Revise and repeat */

2018-12-08T03:53:14Z

‎Step 7: Revise and repeat

Jreed48: /* Step 8: BUILD! */

2018-12-08T03:52:21Z

‎Step 8: BUILD!

Jreed48: /* Step 2: Draw */

2018-12-08T03:50:00Z

‎Step 2: Draw

@@ Line 377: / Line 377: @@
 ! scope="row"| Disadvantages
+|
 * Significantly more expensive
 * Much harder to machine
 |}
@@ Line 421: / Line 421: @@
 The most commonly used type of plastic used is High-density polyethylene (HDPE) because it provides a high strength-to-weight ratio and is fairly elastic. When used as armor, HDPE plastic will "bounce" most glancing blows off of your robot.
-RoboJackets typically sources its HDPE plastic from [https://www.mcmaster.com/ McMaster-Carr] and [https://www.eplastics.com/ ePlastics]. A 12" x 12" x 0.25" plate of HDPE aluminum costs approximately $8.
+RoboJackets typically sources its HDPE plastic from [https://www.mcmaster.com/ McMaster-Carr] and [https://www.eplastics.com/ ePlastics]. A 12" x 12" x 0.25" plate of HDPE costs approximately $8.
 = Helpful Links =

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 * [[Ki]] - Competed at Sparkfun 2016 and Motorama 2017
 * [[Chewi]] - Competed at Motorama 2018, RoboGames 2018, and Sparkfun 2018
 === Vertical Spinner ===

@@ Line 215: / Line 215: @@
 === Step 4: CAD Parts ===
-Proper CADing is a team effort, not a solo effort. When you work alone, you risk misinterpreting a dimension or drawing. During meetings, one or two people should be actively working on the CAD with the remaining members talking through the process with them. Communication is key! By working together on the parts, you will end up creating quality uniform parts. Taking turns working on parts is also important, to ensure everyone gets time working with Inventor. It is entirely expected that your team will need to work on the CAD outside of official meetings, but this work should be only on the parts for which the team has already decided on dimensions for. Meeting with other team members outside of the official meetings is also a good idea for ensuring your team is progressing fast enough to meet your deadlines.
+This step will actually start at the same time as you're looking at choosing a motor. As part of your calculations, you will need the weapon to made in Inventor so that you can get its Mass Moment of Inertia. From there you will need to create a part for the motor that your team ends up choosing, using the dimensions and weight provided by the website you found the motor on.
-There are a few things to consider about working with CAD, as it relates to actually making a 3lb BattleBot:
+Remember that the parts will need to be manufactured from stock, so once you have determined a way to manufacture a part, check how much the stock you'd need will cost and how much material will be wasted as part of your manufacturing. For example, if you have a part that you know how you could manufacture, but it would require a $100 chunk of aluminum, most of which is removed in the process, maybe look at redesigning the part to be simpler so it can be manufactured with cheaper stock.
-* When making parts, try to assign dimensions in a way that makes it easy and go back and adjust the dimensions easily. If your dimensions are assigned all over the place and are liable to conflict, it will take much longer to adjust these values which will inevitably need to happen. Worst case scenario, you may need to completely remake a part due to the original being made improperly.
+Here are some tips for making combat robot parts in CAD...
-This step will actually start at the same time as you're looking at choosing a motor. As part of your calculations, you will need the weapon to made in Inventor so that you can get its Mass Moment of Inertia. From there you will need to create a part for the motor that your team ends up choosing, using the dimensions and weight provided by the website you found the motor on.
+* ''' Assign dimensions ''' in a way that makes it easy to go back and change the values later. This is often accomplished by avoiding making dimensions all dependent on each other, and instead of keeping them based off of the part's overall dimensions.
-Additionally, this step also will give you the clearest image of what the parts true shape will be. With this, you must ask yourself a very important question... how will you actually manufacture this part? It is very easy to create a part that is the perfect shape to fit in the assembly, but cannot actually be created! For each part, it is worthwhile to consider what approach you'd take to manufacture the part, and what tools you'd need.
+Proper CADing is a team effort, not a solo endeavor. When you work alone, you risk misinterpreting a dimension or drawing. During meetings, one or two people should be actively working on the CAD with the remaining members talking through the process with them. Communication is key! You will end up creating quality uniform parts only by working together. Taking turns working on parts is also important, to ensure everyone gets time working with Inventor. Please remember that it is expected that your team will meet and work outside of our regularly scheduled meetings!
 === Step 5: CAD Assembly ===

@@ Line 233: / Line 233: @@
 === Step 5: CAD Assembly ===
-Once the parts are made, its time to start putting together an assembly. You'll need to completely finish the assembly before you can undergo a design review. There are several "do's and dont's" to consider with the assembly...
+Once the parts are made, its time to start putting together an assembly. You'll need to completely finish the assembly before you can undergo a design review. There are several "Do's and Dont's" to consider with the assembly...
 * '''Do''' focus on making sure the overall weight is below 3lbs. It's important to have an assembly that is not only below 3 lbs but is safely below 3 lbs.
 * '''Do''' account for the weight of things potentially not present in the assembly, such as wires, connectors, and material imperfections.

@@ Line 233: / Line 233: @@
 === Step 5: CAD Assembly ===
-Once you've gotten enough parts done, it'll be time to start assembling the parts into an overall assembly. This is when you'll first be able to determine how your bot design would work in reality. This will be what you'll need to have completed for the design review. There are several factors to consider with the assembly, with the obvious factor is the weight of the bot. It's important to have an assembly that is not only below 3 lbs but is safely below 3 lbs. This is because the assembly doesn't take into account the wires and connectors, which are quite heavy. Additionally, imperfections in the materials you use and the parts you make out of them will not match the parts perfectly, and can often be heavier than it's digital representation. The assembly will also be where you will need to add in the fine details, such as screws. Its also a good time to ensure that your team has included clearances on your parts to account for the imperfections related to the machining process, especially those related to the water-jet.
+Once the parts are made, its time to start putting together an assembly. You'll need to completely finish the assembly before you can undergo a design review. There are several "do's and dont's" to consider with the assembly...
+* '''Do''' focus on making sure the overall weight is below 3lbs. It's important to have an assembly that is not only below 3 lbs but is safely below 3 lbs.
-While creating your assembly, it is often a good idea to create sub-assemblies, as it allows the team to work on different sections of the overall assembly at the same time. Common sub-assemblies are a weapon assembly and left/right drive assemblies. It is not necessary to create these sub-assemblies, however, the ability to allow multiple people to work on a subset of the overall assembly is very important to overall productivity.
+* '''Do''' account for the weight of things potentially not present in the assembly, such as wires, connectors, and material imperfections.
 During this time, it is also important to begin working on a Bill of Materials, or BOM for short. This BOM will be a master list of the materials required to create the robot, and where they can be purchased. While there is no specific format for a BOM, the following are expected to be included in one...

@@ Line 237: / Line 237: @@
 While creating your assembly, it is often a good idea to create sub-assemblies, as it allows the team to work on different sections of the overall assembly at the same time. Common sub-assemblies are a weapon assembly and left/right drive assemblies. It is not necessary to create these sub-assemblies, however, the ability to allow multiple people to work on a subset of the overall assembly is very important to overall productivity.
-During this time, it is also important to begin working on a Bill of Materials, or BOM for short. This BOM will be a master list of the materials required to create the robot, and where they can be purchased. Keeping an accurate and through BOM will allow you to launch directly into manufacturing as fast as possible after the design is complete.
+During this time, it is also important to begin working on a Bill of Materials, or BOM for short. This BOM will be a master list of the materials required to create the robot, and where they can be purchased. While there is no specific format for a BOM, the following are expected to be included in one...
 === Step 6: Design Review ===

@@ Line 243: / Line 243: @@
 The whole design process is leading up to one thing: The Design Review. During the design review, you will present your team's assembly to the rest of the BattleBots team. Both your peers and the senior members will ask you questions about your design and point out design flaws and recommendations on how to address them. Often times your first design review will be fairly harsh, with senior members finding plenty of issues with your design. While this may seem mean-spirited, they are simply trying to help you build the best bot that you can. The larger bots will often undergo the design review 3-5 times before they are finally approved to start machining, so even the senior members have to go through this process. Because the 3 lb bots are much simpler, usually only 2 design reviews will be needed.
-It's important to take notes during the design review, as even a "good" design review will result in enough changes that you'll need to write them all down.
+'''It's important to take notes during the design review, as even a "good" design review will result in enough changes that you'll need to write them all down. You will likely get a lot of feedback, and while in the moment you may feel like you'll remember it all it will be impossible to remember every little comment.'''
 === Step 7: Revise and repeat ===

@@ Line 247: / Line 247: @@
 === Step 7: Revise and repeat ===
-Once you get out of a design review, it's important to strike fast while the iron is hot. After your first design review, there will more than likely be several huge changes that you'll need to make to both your individual parts and the assembly as a whole. There is NOT a lot of time between the first and second design reviews, due to the natural time constraints of the 3 lb program. So it's important to start working on these changes sooner rather than later. It's important to also make sure you address ALL the things that are mentioned during the review, as it's important not the waste everyone's time with repeat issues from the previous review.
+Once you get out of a design review, it's important to strike fast while the iron is hot. After your first design review, there will more than likely be several huge changes that you'll need to make to both your individual parts and the assembly as a whole. There is NOT a lot of time between the first and second design reviews (often only a week or two), due to the natural time constraints of the 3lb program. So it's important to start working on these changes sooner rather than later. It's important to also make sure you address ALL the things that are mentioned during the review, as it's important not the waste everyone's time with repeat issues from the previous review.
 === Step 8: BUILD! ===

@@ Line 251: / Line 251: @@
 === Step 8: BUILD! ===
-Now final you can begin manufacturing! Thanks to the design process, the quality of the parts you manufacture and the quality of the robot as a whole will be greatly increased. This doesn't mean everything will go as planned however. Inevitably, something will go wrong during the manufacturing process, or even when assembling the robot. You will need to make minor adjustments to the design as you manufacture, and when you do so make sure to update your CAD to reflect these changes. Beware changing too much and causing the overall assembly to be overweight.
+Now finally you can begin manufacturing! Keep in mind...
 == Calculations ==

@@ Line 183: / Line 183: @@
 The middle right image shows a detailed drawing for the assembly of the motor and the motor mount. Once again, the added details would make it much easier for the creation of the part in CAD.
-This step can be done simultaneously with Step 4, as you draw and dimension parts as you need them during the early meetings. However, it's important not to put off finishing the drawings for all parts, as it can make it harder to work outside of meetings. There should always be a group present when dimensioning parts, so if you don't have any parts that are dimensioned, you can't make a good CAD part.
+This step can be done simultaneously with Steps 3 and 4, as you draw and dimension parts as you need them during the early meetings. However, it's important not to put off finishing the drawings for all parts, as it can make it harder to work outside of meetings. There should always be a group present when dimensioning parts, so if you don't have any parts that are dimensioned, you can't make a good CAD part.
 === Step 3: Picking a motor ===