Every year we get many, many questions about the steps we take to produce a highly competitive machine. In this blog, we hope to present a detailed account of how team 1678 approaches the process of designing and building our 2023 robot.
This is our first attempt at this kind of blog, and just like a new robot it will have issues. We will do our best to portray this process as best we can in text, pictures, and videos, but there will invariably be details and context that we fail to adequately communicate. In those cases we ask for your forgiveness and hope that you will provide the feedback we need to improve. This, like everything, is an iterative process.
This is our first attempt at this kind of blog, and just like a new robot it will have issues. We will do our best to portray this process as best we can in text, pictures, and videos, but there will invariably be details and context that we fail to adequately communicate. In those cases we ask for your forgiveness and hope that you will provide the feedback we need to improve. This, like everything, is an iterative process.
Citrus Circuits At-A-Glance
Team Size and Structure
Team 1678 is based out of Davis Senior High School in Davis, California. We draw students from around the district, for a total population of 87 students and 23 mentors. The team is split into seven subteams:
Meeting Times
During build season, official meeting times are Wednesday/Thursday 6:30 - 9:00, and Saturday/Sunday 9:00 - 5:00. Extra meetings are called as needed, typically from 3:30 to 5:00 or 6:00. Students are expected to work at home on CAD and code between meetings so that time spent in the shop can be focused on building and testing.
Facility
Our facility consists of two large rooms with a variety of smaller side rooms. The largest room has desks, tables, and 2/3 of a field. The second largest room has our machine shop. Between the two is a small room for BAM, and branching off of the largest room are "rooms" (closets) for electrical, scouting, 3D printing, and a kitchen. Our machine shop has mills, lathes, a bandsaw, a drill press, a chop saw, a brake press, and several routers along with the standard collection of hand and power tools. Our 3D printing room has both Markforged and Prusa printers.
Team 1678 is based out of Davis Senior High School in Davis, California. We draw students from around the district, for a total population of 87 students and 23 mentors. The team is split into seven subteams:
- Business and Media (BAM) (8)
- Hardware Design (22)
- Hardware Electrical (10)
- Hardware Fabrication (17)
- Software General (14)
- Software Robot (7)
- Software Scouting (9)
Meeting Times
During build season, official meeting times are Wednesday/Thursday 6:30 - 9:00, and Saturday/Sunday 9:00 - 5:00. Extra meetings are called as needed, typically from 3:30 to 5:00 or 6:00. Students are expected to work at home on CAD and code between meetings so that time spent in the shop can be focused on building and testing.
Facility
Our facility consists of two large rooms with a variety of smaller side rooms. The largest room has desks, tables, and 2/3 of a field. The second largest room has our machine shop. Between the two is a small room for BAM, and branching off of the largest room are "rooms" (closets) for electrical, scouting, 3D printing, and a kitchen. Our machine shop has mills, lathes, a bandsaw, a drill press, a chop saw, a brake press, and several routers along with the standard collection of hand and power tools. Our 3D printing room has both Markforged and Prusa printers.
The Plan
The build season plan is written up by student leadership before the season starts, and is edited and approved by the head coaches. As of the start of build season, the plan looks like this:
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/pdf.png)
2023_build_season_schedule.pdf |
We look forward to the coming season, good luck everyone!