Week 1 Status Update

It's been a busy week for the Metool Brigade!

 Our field crew has made great strides and our Bridge, Hoops and Feeder are almost completely assembled!

 This year we are making an attempt at CAD'ing the whole robot.  Here are are so far.  A lot of details are still to be refined.

 Here is a Lego representation of the Robot.  We build these to give the team a good physical object that we can use for brainstorming where and how components will go and how they'll work.

Last but not least is of course the robot!  Drive base is assembled, Intake roller is installed, Electrical Board all wired up and ready to go!

FRC Network Tool + More Resources + Other Events

The MeTool Brigade recognizes that during development on a FRC Robot, configuring the network settings can be a bit of a time waster, especially if you misconfigure something.  With that in mind, we are proud to launch an application called "FRC Network Tool" to any team that wishes to use it.  More info on this project can be found here and the Chief Delphi thread here.  As this project is still under development, bear in mind there are still surely many bugs that need to be fixed.  If you would like to aid in development please email davidgitz@gmail.com

Additionally, while building a robot there are many tools to use to keep things organized and efficient.  One of our team mentors, David Gitz has posted the different tools that he uses for this subject here.  Additionally you will find a comprehensive vendor list to help you find some good robot parts.

Also, we will be participating in the Hazelwood Central High School Robotics Demonstration on November 16th at 6pm.

Practice Robot 1st Test Run

1st Test Run with our new Practice Robot on Mecanum Wheels and Wormbox Transmissions.

Beta Testing

The MeTool Brigade has been selected as a Beta Testing Team!  We are excited for this honor and look forward to being able to help develop and troubleshoot the software used for all FRC Teams.

We will be posting information to the FIRST Forum located here.

Projects for the Fall Season

The MeTool Brigade is going to have a busy Fall!  Currently, we are working on 3 major projects:

1.  Upgrades to our 2011 FRC Robot, "Pythagasaurus Rex"
We are adding pneumatics and a arm rotation sensor to teach our students some new things that we may wish to use on our 2012 competition robot.  Additionally, as the spool for our Claw was broken at a recent demonstration, now is as a good time as any to explore the exciting world of pneumatics!










2.  Practice Robot
We have found that many highly successful teams in FRC build 2 robots during a competition season, a competition robot and a practice robot.  We are taking our cue from them and building our own practice robot this fall.







We are using some pretty cool components on this robot, including these Mecanum Wheels and these Worm Gear Gearbox's.









3.  Parade Robot
Finally, we feel that we really need to show our community what the MeTool Brigade is all about.  We've decided to build a new robot that we will use in parades.  The old robot was named "CandyBot", we are still looking for a name for the new one.
Right now it is still a shell, but as Homecoming at OTHS is coming soon we have our work cut out for us!

New Blog

This is FIRST Robotics Team #1208 "The MeTool Brigade" 's new Blog. Check back here for interesting news about the workings of the team.

David Gitz, Electrical Engineer

MeTool Electrical/Programming Team Mentor