We had an open house today during the last chunk of practice. This required an earlier dinner than usual. 50% of programming was in the gym getting the robot working. Nothing much else of import happened.

• Updating (All present): We made sure that all of the computers were updated with the latest WPIlib, Phoenix Tuner X, and Pathplanner versions.
• Logging (Zach, Serena): More work was done on data logging, specifically the drivetrain current.
• Fighting with Git (Me, Evan [M]): I fought with Git because of commit issues with the pathplanner stuff.

Too tired to be funny.

The plan was for the team to be in three places at once today. Ops at the practice field, the drive teams at a mini-tournament called Shamrock Showdown, and the rest of the team at the shop. Then someone enabled the robot while the controllers were still in their holders, it drove itself off a table, and now we have zero functional robots. On a lighter note, here's what programming did today:

• Auto Work (Me, Rowan, Griffin): We made a bunch more paths and autos. The newest ones are three/four notes with automatic pickup.
• Radio Testing (Serena, Jason [M]): There were some communication issues during the Shamrock Showdown, and a lot of time was spent trying to diagnose and fix the issues. It turned out to just be firewall problems.
• Side Intake Stuff (Serena, Xiaohan): We might be getting side wheels to improve the intake, so these two made code for that.
• Code Cleanup (Me, Griffin): Our code has gotten messy over the past while, so we needed to fix it. Griffin did camelcase stuff, I removed obsolete items from Pathplanner.

Productive, but not as planned.

Things that happened today:

• Mass Computer Updating (Xiaohan and Serena): All of the computers needed to be updated to VS Code version 2024.3.2. These two took the lead.
• Motion Magic (Griffin, Augie, Serena): We worked on improving our PID Indexer intake, by making some motion code, and then using Phoenix Tuner X, one note, and the comp bott find the static friction value, and other variables we needed
• Lux Underglow (Davey): Davey worked on coding light colors and patterns, to begin the creation of our new Reactive Underlights.
• Note Alignment (Rowan, Zach): These two made a command to automatically align collected notes within the intake. This will make all associated things more precise and reliable. Logging Work (Zack): Work on the logging system is continuing.
• Design Document (Serena): Serena thought a online app would be useful for scouting, as our previous method(Google Forms) wasn't good enough to keep up with the match. She worked on the app, and learned how to make it for much of the practice.

Build took the robot.

I took the ACT today and am tired. Things that happened today:

• Robot Testing (Xiaohan, Rowan, Griffin, Zach, Serena, and I): There was a lot of testing on the comp bot today. The first things to do were to make sure the intake was working and deal with a wheel issue. The wheel issue, as far as I can tell, is that one of the wheels is incosistently moving with the opposite speed and direction to the other three wheels. This is bad for a variety of reasons. Griffin's job was to deploy Duluth code we knew was consistent when the the motor went wrong. There was a lot of Phoenix Tuner testing and comparing motor speeds. We eventually discovered that the Back Right Motor Encoder was broken so thoroughly that it was drawing 18 amps to run at something like 0.1 meters per second. For comparison, a working motor takes 1 amp to run at 1 meter per second. Build had to replace the entire motor. After dinner we had access to the gym. The first test was the intake again. One of the first discoveries was that the best results were from driving backwards at low speeds. Driving forwards could hold the note but not fully intake it, and collection at high speeds was difficult. Next we tested move meters. It worked. Then we tried doing amp shots. This did not work.
• Move Meters Command (Davey, Serena): These two created a command that takes a bunch of fancy math stuff and some speeds and lets us set a very specific amount of meters to move the robot.
• Return of an Old Friend (Rowan, Zach): Captain 23 once again saved our asses by adjusting our limelight code to use a new and more reliable library.
• Indexer Backup (Zach): We were having some issues with the note being moved too far forwards. The quick-fix was to add a button to run the intake backwards.
• Data Logging (Griffin): Griffin worked on the data logging project. There is now completed code for the intake and Robot Container.

That's all for tonight.

Not a lot was done today.

• Practice field (Xiohan, Zack, Rowan, Serena): I assume they are testing autos and other new code. As I am not there I do not know for sure what is going on.
• Programming room (Augie and I): We worked on ground pick up that turned out to be not nessacary and deleted and redid our work a lot of times. Then we deleted unused branches.
• Morning work (Serena and Zack): This morning it was Serena in charge because Rowan was at a bar mitzvah. So Serena and Zack worked on auto aligning for the shooted and other auto stuff.

I had a headache and the team celebrated Liam and Levi's birthdays.

We have returned from competition, and spent the first chunk of practice debriefing. Our current goals are, in order of priority:

1. Fix the power managment so that we stop browning out in the middle of matches.
2. Improve odometry.
3. Make scoring in the amp more reliable.
4. Make more autos, including at least one three-note auto.
5. Make the lights work (partially contingent on Build attaching them).
6. Improve the data log system to collect even more data.
7. Make the robot able to shoot accurately while moving.
8. Make the robot able to shoot accurately at extreme ranges.
9. Shoot into the trap.

Anyway, things that acutally happened today:

• Code Review (Rowan, Me, Davey, Serena, Zach): Rowan went over the entire robot code to make sure that everyone was up to speed.
• Duluth Code Merging (Rowan): The Duluth code (with some alterations) was commited to main.

The title is a pun.

Hello! I will be using the usual highlight-long version format. Anyway, the highlights:

• We placed second in the rankings.
• We placed second in the playoffs.
• We won the Team Spirit award, which I am beginning to think is the 'loudest' award.
• All of the subsystems were functional, but the planned autoaim was not.

I was too busy to make a post on Saturday, so here is the abridged version: we brought Orpheus to week 0 at Irondale, it failed, we went to the practice field with Euridyce, it also failed. Now, what happened today:

• Manual Backups (Me): As it turned out that more than half of the automatic functions on the robot didn't work, the decision was made to make manual backup systems. This was complicated by the driver and co-driver arguing over who got what.
• Safe Mode (Griffin): Griffin made a safe mode for pit testing.
• General Testing (Rowan, Serena, Xiaohan, Zach): A lot of testing of shooting happened.

Apologies for posting this so late.

This post is so named because I actually was to be in the gym while the robot was being tested. And what a test it was.

• Voltage & Current Limiters (Me, Griffin): It was noticed that the robot was having brownout issues due to the sheer number of motors and subsystems, so we were assigned to do something about it. This meant making bits of code that would display the voltages and currents, and then making limiters that would stop the various motors from drawing too much power. It should also be noted that I called this around week 2 when I did the math and realised that the robot would have around 16 motors.
• General Testing (Rowan, Serena, Xiaohan, Zach): These four were using the robot for most of practice. They managed to make a path that would let us consistently score in the amp and finished it right after dinner. Then they came down to the practice field to make a number of tests. The main one was odometry, which took a large chunk of time.

Also Griffin and I got bored so we went outside and played catch with one of the spare notes for about 10-15 minutes.

Hello again. This is the last proper week of build season. We have practice tomorrow and Thursday to get everything done, week 0 is on Saturday, then it's just Tuesday and then Duluth. Orpheus and Euridyce should be ready by then.

• Intake Testing (Xiaohan, Rowan): One of the intake motors burned out and needed to be replaced. We tested it to make sure. Then later in the day the offsets needed to be altered again.
• Climber Work (Rowan, Serena): A lot of testing was done on the climber limits. It was also made faster.
• Logging Tests (Serena, Me): Serena set up a system to let us log all of the motor data, and I did a very brief test towards the end of practice.
• Auto Work (Me, Zach, Rowan, Xiaohan): Zach and I worked on autonomous stuff. Specifically updating the autos because we learned that they couldn't just use the default commands. So we needed to make sure that every single auto turned on the intake and shooter and had shoot commands in the proper places. Zach dealt with a lot of it. Then most of the autos were actually tested
• Bumper Work (Griffin, Davey): These two went to go work on bumpers for today due to lack of things to do.

It appears that despite my sucessors, I shall be making most blog posts for a while longer. For I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

(Sleep in this context means graduating and thus leaving the team.)